www.shaproperty.com: [RealEdge] TodayOnline : Getting their house in order

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

[RealEdge] TodayOnline : Getting their house in order

This story was printed from TODAYonline

Getting their house in order

New central registry for estate agents will help consumers seek redress

Wednesday ?September 27, 2006

Leong Wee Keat
weekeat@newstoday.com.sg

AFTER visiting a four-room flat in Toa Payoh, Mr Tan Aik Bing thought he had found a dream home. But for the 33-year-old civil servant, the journey towards home ownership has been an "emotional and frustrating" one.

Mr Tan has an ongoing dispute with a housing agent who represented him for his purchase of his flat. He said he found his housing agent was acting for both the buying and selling parties without informing him.

Then, from his perspective, came the stunner: The agent was actually the seller's son. The seller, himself, was an undischarged bankrupt.

He wrote to the agency which told him that "whether an agent is the son of the vendors is irrelevant to the issue". It added that the real issue was whether the agent had acted in good faith ?and in the opinion of the company he had. It also added that the agent was not specifically required to inform the buyer if the seller was a bankrupt.

As a gesture of goodwill, Mr Tan was asked to pay a reduced commission. Still unhappy, he is pursuing his grouse with the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case).

Meanwhile, the Institute of Estate Agents (IEA) is taking steps to reduce possible friction between the agents and the parties involved in a property transaction.

Today, it is launching the Central Registration Scheme, which allows agencies and consumers to check on the status of agents and seek redress on their conduct. It is also to account for the exact number of practitioners in the real estate industry.

Consumers and agencies can check on agents who operate illegally without being attached to any licensed agency or are quietly attached to more than one agency. But these steps allay only a part of the unhappiness that has been vented over the past few weeks in this newspaper's Voices section.

Readers have been lobbying for changes to the controversial practice in which an agent collects 2 per cent of the HDB flat sale price from the seller and 1 per cent from the buyer. This dual commission is not seen in private home sales, they argue, whereby buyers not represented by agents are usually not asked to pay the 1 per cent fee.

Case president Yeo Guat Kwang weighed in on the issue, arguing that it was not necessary to have different commission payment structures for HDB and private property transactions. When contacted, Case also revealed the number of complaints against dual commissions has risen ?from only seven last year to 20 cases in the first eight months of this year.

Out of a total of 468 complaints against property agents in general this year, 89 of them were commission-related. This compares to 55 last year, out of a total of 340.

On the other hand, Mr Low Swee Kim, second vice-president of the IEA, pointed out that there have been cases where property agents "lower their commission rates to as low as one per cent" due to the competitive nature of the industry. However, he conceded that the real estate industry needed to be more regulated.

Currently, the Government licenses housing agencies, rather than individual agents. For instance, out of the estimated 10,000 agents in the market, only about 1,000 are registered with the IEA as members.

And only 349 agents have passed the accreditation test launched last year. A total of 269 agencies ?with about 6,500 agents ?have also got the quality tag.

"The IEA currently does not have the teeth nor the authority to discipline real estate agents who have fallen foul of our code of conduct and ethics," Mr Low said. "A certain amount of regulation will certainly help in getting our house back into order."

Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

__._,_.___

Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic

Messages | Database

Real Estate News Provided Freely

Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___

// posted by Shajahan @ 11:52 AM

<< Home

	This story was printed from TODAYonline


	Getting their house in order New central registry for estate agents will help consumers seek redress Wednesday ?September 27, 2006 Leong Wee Keat weekeat@newstoday.com.sg AFTER visiting a four-room flat in Toa Payoh, Mr Tan Aik Bing thought he had found a dream home. But for the 33-year-old civil servant, the journey towards home ownership has been an "emotional and frustrating" one. Mr Tan has an ongoing dispute with a housing agent who represented him for his purchase of his flat. He said he found his housing agent was acting for both the buying and selling parties without informing him. Then, from his perspective, came the stunner: The agent was actually the seller's son. The seller, himself, was an undischarged bankrupt. He wrote to the agency which told him that "whether an agent is the son of the vendors is irrelevant to the issue". It added that the real issue was whether the agent had acted in good faith ?and in the opinion of the company he had. It also added that the agent was not specifically required to inform the buyer if the seller was a bankrupt. As a gesture of goodwill, Mr Tan was asked to pay a reduced commission. Still unhappy, he is pursuing his grouse with the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case). Meanwhile, the Institute of Estate Agents (IEA) is taking steps to reduce possible friction between the agents and the parties involved in a property transaction. Today, it is launching the Central Registration Scheme, which allows agencies and consumers to check on the status of agents and seek redress on their conduct. It is also to account for the exact number of practitioners in the real estate industry. Consumers and agencies can check on agents who operate illegally without being attached to any licensed agency or are quietly attached to more than one agency. But these steps allay only a part of the unhappiness that has been vented over the past few weeks in this newspaper's Voices section. Readers have been lobbying for changes to the controversial practice in which an agent collects 2 per cent of the HDB flat sale price from the seller and 1 per cent from the buyer. This dual commission is not seen in private home sales, they argue, whereby buyers not represented by agents are usually not asked to pay the 1 per cent fee. Case president Yeo Guat Kwang weighed in on the issue, arguing that it was not necessary to have different commission payment structures for HDB and private property transactions. When contacted, Case also revealed the number of complaints against dual commissions has risen ?from only seven last year to 20 cases in the first eight months of this year. Out of a total of 468 complaints against property agents in general this year, 89 of them were commission-related. This compares to 55 last year, out of a total of 340. On the other hand, Mr Low Swee Kim, second vice-president of the IEA, pointed out that there have been cases where property agents "lower their commission rates to as low as one per cent" due to the competitive nature of the industry. However, he conceded that the real estate industry needed to be more regulated. Currently, the Government licenses housing agencies, rather than individual agents. For instance, out of the estimated 10,000 agents in the market, only about 1,000 are registered with the IEA as members. And only 349 agents have passed the accreditation test launched last year. A total of 269 agencies ?with about 6,500 agents ?have also got the quality tag. "The IEA currently does not have the teeth nor the authority to discipline real estate agents who have fallen foul of our code of conduct and ethics," Mr Low said. "A certain amount of regulation will certainly help in getting our house back into order."

	Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

www.shaproperty.com

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

[RealEdge] TodayOnline : Getting their house in order

Previous Posts