News / National
Bogus estate agents on the prowl
26 Jun 2019 at 07:35hrs | Views
REGISTERED estate agents in Gweru on Monday claimed that bogus property sellers were on the prowl in the Midlands capital and called on the council to help weed out the illegal operators.
Trevor Dollar Real Estate director Victor Wasara said as registered agents they were aware of bogus estate brokers in the city who were operating without licences, depriving registered estate agents of business.
"We are saying council should help us do away with these illegal business units in the city," Wasara said at a recent council supplementary budget meeting held at Town House.
"As registered agents, our worry is how these bogus sellers continue operating in the city without the local authority's knowledge. We pay our tariffs to council and we cannot allow a situation where bogus people take business from us."
Killian Musiiwa of Central Real Estate weighed in, saying there were a number of estate agents in the city who were operating "briefcase businesses".
Council's director of health services Sam Sekenhamo said the local authority only registered estate agent operators who were established and had valid certificates.
"As council, we are going to investigate if there are bogus property sellers and estate agents in the city," he said.
"But let me hasten to say that the department of health services only deals with those agents operating from known and established premises. If the estate agents know of any bogus operator, they should approach us with the names and we will make our own investigations."
Estate agents should be registered with the Estate Agents Council of Zimbabwe (EACZ) as well as be in possession of valid compensation certificates for a particular year, among other requirements.
In July last year, EACZ blacklisted 52 estate agents, with the majority having no compensation certificates, while a few were not registered.
Trevor Dollar Real Estate director Victor Wasara said as registered agents they were aware of bogus estate brokers in the city who were operating without licences, depriving registered estate agents of business.
"We are saying council should help us do away with these illegal business units in the city," Wasara said at a recent council supplementary budget meeting held at Town House.
"As registered agents, our worry is how these bogus sellers continue operating in the city without the local authority's knowledge. We pay our tariffs to council and we cannot allow a situation where bogus people take business from us."
Killian Musiiwa of Central Real Estate weighed in, saying there were a number of estate agents in the city who were operating "briefcase businesses".
Council's director of health services Sam Sekenhamo said the local authority only registered estate agent operators who were established and had valid certificates.
"As council, we are going to investigate if there are bogus property sellers and estate agents in the city," he said.
"But let me hasten to say that the department of health services only deals with those agents operating from known and established premises. If the estate agents know of any bogus operator, they should approach us with the names and we will make our own investigations."
Estate agents should be registered with the Estate Agents Council of Zimbabwe (EACZ) as well as be in possession of valid compensation certificates for a particular year, among other requirements.
In July last year, EACZ blacklisted 52 estate agents, with the majority having no compensation certificates, while a few were not registered.
Source - newsday
