By irene mwende
The Estate Agents Registration Board has today voiced its concerns over the increased number of new associations claiming to regulate the real estate companies. Most of the associations have in the past been known to swindle Kenyans.
While addressing the media at their offices along 3rd Ngong Avenue in Nairobi, the chairperson of the Board Ms Eunice Macharia remarked, “The Estate Agents Registration Board EARB is the sole regulatory body with the mandate to register estate agents under Estate Agents Act Cap 533 to ensure practice of estate agency is of high standards in order to protect the public. These association’s she continued to add seem to be mutations of land buying companies which have previously swindled Kenyan citizens through false pretenses that they are in a position to sell them land. We want to warn Kenyans that these groupings have no mandate to register estate agents neither are they regulated by the government and any person associating with them may be exposed to fraud.
The board has over the years tried reaching the groups but their efforts have bore little to no fruit. The Board which lack physical presence in County government attributed the scenario to the Amorphous nature of the groupings and their unwillingness to comply by the law.
Ms Eunice concluded by Saying ” Anyone committing to buy land should carry out due diligence on the titles, ensure the subdivisions schemes are approved by the relevant county and National Governments and that the sub-divided parcels have of the requisite titles to save them from financial loses or heartaches as they may be enticed with false schemes.