ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR UNDERTAKING THE EXAM
It is the policy of the EAAB that:
- only registered and practicing estate agents who have been granted equivalency exemption from completing the prescribed qualifications for their practicing status and or have already qualified against prescribed qualifications are allowed to enrol and undertake the professional designation examination;
- previously registered estate agents who have been granted equivalency exemption from completing the prescribed qualifications for their practicing status and or have already qualified against prescribed qualifications are also allowed provided they are doing so in order to re-enter the profession;
- only registered and practicing principal estate agents will be allowed to enrol for PDE 5 (professional designation examination for principal estate agents;
- registered principals on 15 July 2008 are automatically exempted from undertaking PDE 4 by virtue of their status on the commencement of the Education Regulations, and will also be automatically be exempted from completing prescribed non-principal qualifications. Therefore these principals are only required to complete prescribed principal qualifications for them to be eligible to enrol and undertake PDE 5 (professional designation examination for principal estate agents) unless already exempted from PDE 5 through the statutory PDE exemption process;
- Should a principal estate agent elect, after having completed the Professional Designation Examination for principal estate agents, rather to practice as a non-principal estate agent, such person may be exempted from the Professional Designation Examination for non-principal estate agents (PDE 4) on the basis of having already passed the Professional Designation Examination for principal estate agents (PDE 5);
- All intern estate agents who have completed the 12 months internship period and have submitted a compliant intern logbook or intern completion letter, whichever is applicable, and which has been accepted and approved by the EAAB and such approval has been communicated to the estate agent, will be allowed to enrol for and undertake PDE 4 (professional designation examination for non-principal estate agents);
- All non-principal estate agents must enrol and undertake PDE 4 (professional designation examination for non-principal estate agents);
- It is a requirement that PDE 4 or PDE 5 should be undertaken within two years of having been granted the equivalency exemption from completing the prescribed qualifications for their practicing status and or of having been certificated successfully for completing prescribed qualifications for the current practicing status, and only if authorised or granted extension by the CEO of the EAAB or the Executive Manager: Education and Training will eligible estate agents be allowed to undertake the prescribed examination after the prescribed two years period.;
- It is the policy of the EAAB that all qualifying estate agents who have not been exempted from the Professional Designation Examination pursuant to the provisions of the Education Regulations shall be required to write and pass the Professional Designation Examination for either principal or non-principal estate agents respectively within two years from the date when such persons were either certificated against the relevant estate agency qualification or were exempted from having to obtain the relevant estate agency qualification by virtue of previous tertiary qualifications obtained from a South African tertiary institution.
EXAMINATION DATES, CENTRES AND FEES
- Examination dates and fee payable by candidates when enrolling for the Professional Designation Examination shall be determined annually in advance by the EAAB;
- Examination centres are published on My EAAB portal every time the exam enrolment/registration window is opened by the EAAB for a particular date, Therefore exam centres are subject to change;
- The EAAB’s website should be accessed by all prospective exam candidates to view dates and applicable fees;
- Estate agents who have previously enrolled but postponed successfully will be affected by new fees and top-up payment will be applicable. Such estate agents are required to enrol via MYEAAB portal once again and then send the previous payment proof together with top-up payment proof and their exam enrolment confirmation for EAAB to link both payments and assign an exam seat number;
- Payments must at all times be made using the correct 7 digit reference number assigned to each registered estate agent;
- It is the policy of the EAAB that only electronic payment transfers and credit card payments will be allowed and processed for examination. No cash payment will be accepted;
- Examination fees paid by candidates are non-refundable unless payment was made in error. This means that a credit note may, however, be issued by the EAAB to an examination candidate should a timeously received written request by that candidate for the postponement of an examination be considered and approved by the EAAB.
BANKING DETAILS FOR PAYMENT OF EXAMINATION FEES
All examination fees applicable to the enrolment by a candidate for the Professional Designation Examination shall be paid by that examination candidate as follows:
Account name: Estate Agency Affairs Board
Bank: ABSA Bank
Account Number: 4052033310
Branch Code: 632005
Branch Name: Protea Park
POSTPONEMENTS: Candidates may, in writing, request a single postponement of the Professional Designation Examination. Any such written application for postponement, accompanied by appropriate supporting documentation, must be received by the EAAB at least five (5) working days prior to the scheduled Professional Designation Examination date.
If the application is, on good cause, granted the postponement by the EAAB the candidate may be issued with a credit note to enable the candidate to undertake a future Professional Designation Examination.
Any Professional Designation Examination candidate who fails to request, and be granted, a postponement in accordance with the provisions of this paragraph shall, on the prerogative of the Executive Manager: Education and Training, forfeit the entire examination fee.
REFUND PROCEDURES: No monetary refunds shall be made to examination candidates who either cancel or postpone their enrolment for the Professional Designation Examination. The fees payable for the Professional Designation Examination shall, if approved by the EAAB in terms of this policy, be utilised to enable the candidate concerned to undertake the Professional Designation Examination at a later date.
PHYSICALLY DISABLED CANDIDATES: Applicants having any visual, physical or other disability restricting them from sitting for an examination under normal conditions may request that a special arrangement be made to facilitate their undertaking of the Professional Designation Examination in accordance with the EAAB policy and procedure for dealing with estate agents who, due either to physical or other incapacitation, are unable to sit for or write the Professional Designation Examination.
EXAMINATION RESULTS AND CONFIRMATION INCLUDING CERTIFICATES OF PROFESSIONAL DESIGNATION: it is the policy of the EAAB that examination results will be uploaded on MyEAAB within 60 days of the examination date, depending on the volume of the examination. This period may therefore be subject to change. Therefore results must be viewed on MyEAAB portal by all examination candidates. Examination results and confirmation letters will be issued within the same time lines to examination candidate by use of email addresses reflecting on the EAAB system.
Examination certificate of professional designation will be communicated within 90 days of the examination date via postage to the postal address reflecting on the EAAB system. No results or certificates will be issued to any other email address not linked to the examination candidate. No results or certificate will be issued to any other person requesting for such results. It is the responsibility of estate agents to update personal details such as surname changes, postal address, email address and telephone number; and within 14 days of the change of such details, in accordance with the Estate Agency Affairs Act.
CANDIDATES WHO PASS/FAIL THE PROFESSIONAL DESIGNATION EXAMINATION:Failing candidates may appeal against examination results, in accordance with the appeals procedure contained in the examination letter. Failing candidates are also notified that they may write the Professional Designation Examination for both principal and non-principal estate agents as many times as may be required having regard to the two years’ time constraints above. Such candidates shall be required to follow the usual application process when re-writing the Professional Designation Examination as well as to pay the full examination fee applicable to the Professional Designation Examination for that particular financial/calendar year.
STATUS UPGRADE FROM INTERN ESTATE AGENT TO FULL STATUS ESTATE AGENTis only effected if the intern estate agents has submitted the signed off Intern Logbook and POE (refer to guidelines regarding this on MyEAAB under Education), have also qualified against NQF 4/ granted equivalency exemption from completing NQF 4 qualification and have also written and passed PDE 4. The amended FFC will be automatically issued and downloadable on the MyEAAB portal. Should such not be issued after the above criteria has been complied with, registrations department can be contacted by emailing to registrations@eaab.org.za
STATUS UPGRADE FROM FULL STATUS ESTATE AGENT TO PRINCIPAL is regarded new Principal Registration and therefore Registration as a Principal Procedure should be complied with fully as per Registrations procedures available on MyEAAB portal under Registrations (not under Education).
It is the policy of the EAAB that only full status estate agents who have already complied fully with non-principal educational requirements; i.e. having already issued with full status estate agent FFC, certificated against or exempted from NQF 4 + NQF 5 as well as having passed PDE 4 or exempted from PDE4; prior to lodging Principal registration application to the Registrations Department.
The estate agent wishing to submit the application to register as a principal is thus advised to first check their education status via MyEAAB to ensure the above criteria has been complied or submit such education documents to upgrades@eaab.org.za prior to them lodging the application to register as principals to Registrations Department.
The Education department will update accordingly to ensure that when the estate agent lodges their principal registration application is not delayed. It should be noted that the Education Department is not responsible for issuance of new Fidelity Fund Certificates (FFC)’s or amended FFC’s. All queries regarding FFC’s should be directed to the Call Centre who will check the status of the FFC application or new FFC issuance.
Issued by the Education and Training Department
September 2016
