Real Estate Investor March 2022 | Page 50

to registration . All registered property practitioners , including those who earn a commission from the sale or lease of a property , are required to have a valid FFC which must be produced on request .
FFCs are required to be available and visible at the property practitioner ’ s physical place of business , including websites if transactions occur online . All property transaction agreements must now include a prescribed clause guaranteeing the validity of their certificate . Luckily for all property practitioners , the certificate will now be valid for a period of 3 years .

2

Tax Clearance and
BEE Certificates The new Act includes updated regulations around FFCs including the need for a valid tax clearance and BEE certificate . Both property practitioners and the businesses they represent must be registered and compliant .

3

Auditing
A property practitioner ’ s trust account has to be audited on an annual basis and the details of the auditors made available to the authority . However , property practitioners whose business turnover is less than R2.5 million a year , do not need to be audited and can instead have their financial statements reviewed by a qualified accountant . The new act also makes provision for property practitioners who don ’ t receive money into their trust accounts , in which case they can apply to be exempt from an audit , nor would they even need to have a trust account .

4

Marketing Material
While a property practitioner ’ s marketing material does not need to include their FFC number , it does need to contain the provisions that the property practitioner is registered with the PPRA .

5

Mandatory
Disclosure Document The PPA requires property practitioners to include a disclosure form which details a comprehensive list of property defects from the seller or lessor before a mandate is concluded . The inclusion of these disclosure forms , which needs to be signed by all parties , is now a mandatory requirement for all property sales and lease agreements and no mandate may be accepted from a seller or a landlord without this document attached .
This means that prior to an estate agent being granted a mandate , they must ensure that the disclosure form is available . This may just lead to more property practitioners signing and implementing legislatively compliant written mandate agreements , protecting the property practitioner in a way that verbal agreements simply cannot .
48 MARCH 2022 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine