Some estate agencies in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town have been abusing their trust accounts and contravening the Estate Agency Affairs Act in other ways. Some agents also had "blatantly unacceptable and discriminatory provisions" in their contracts, following a joint inspection by the Estate Agencies Affairs Board and the Financial Intelligence Centre over the past year. Some 17,000 estate agencies are to be investigated. Other transgressions uncovered include:
- A failure to properly designate trust account funds;
- Auditor reports inaccurately reflecting the businesses of some firms to the point of fraud;
- Operating without the obligatory Fidelity Fund certificates, and
- Blatantly contravening the industry code of ethics.
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