Dear Colleagues
Welcome to our latest Report. The second half of the year is upon us and with it new challenges and developments that have a direct impact on real estate business owners.
We are aware of the problems you are all experiencing, registering on the new FIC goAML system. goAML runs within Internet Explorer version 9 and up , Firefox, Google Chrome but not on Safari. The URL https://goStage.fic.gov.za/goAMLWeb_UAT must be added to the trusted sites and pop ups must be enabled to avoid the site being blocked. Please read more on this below.
I would also like to thank all our members who have signed the Rebosa Equality Pledge and appeal to those of you who have not done so to please visit our website and submit your Pledge.
Our website is continuously updated so please visit it from time to time to get the latest updates on legislation and industry news. If you are not receiving notifications from the EAAB you can also access these on our website under the EAAB or Education tab. In the weeks to come I am hoping to address the time frames in respect of the NQF 4&5 competency and certification process. I will keep you informed on any progress we make.
Thank you for reading on.
Kind regards
Jan
REBOSA AGM
Rebosa held its 3rd AGM on Friday 24 June 2016 in Johannesburg.
We are pleased to announce the addition of two new members to the organisations board; Ms Amanda Cuba and Mr Nico du Plessis.
Amanda Cuba currently serves as the Assistant Regional Director and Chief Operations Officer of RE/MAX Southern Africa and Nico du Plessis is the Chairman of Residential Network Systems.
We are grateful for the experience and expertise these new board members bring to the organisation and especially for their deep understanding of the challenges currently facing the residential real estate industry. They will be a tremendous asset to Rebosa and we wish them every success going forward.
The Board reinforces its commitment to good governance and effective representation. We are excited to work with our new board in navigating Rebosa through the next stages of its growth.
On this note, we wish to thank our outgoing directors; Adrian Goslett and Jan Davel for their contribution and unwavering commitment to the Company through a period of significant change. They have been instrumental in leading Rebosa through its inaugural phase and setting it up for continued success.
Following, please find our Chairman, Mr Andrew Goldings’s address to the 2016 AGM.
We were fortunate enough to have Mr Dave Steward from the FW de Klerk Foundation address Rebosa Members on the “Future of Property Rights” and for those of you who could not attend, his speech is attached for your perusal.
FW de Klerk Foundation Speech 16 06 24 Rebosa
2017 FFC Renewal Fees and Process
Please take special note that renewal of 2017 FFCs will only commence on 1 August 2016 as opposed to the previous years’ 1 July commencement and close on 31 October 2016. Any payment of the renewal fee for 2017 FFCs made after 31 October 2016 will attract the monthly penalty for late renewal.
We also remind you to renew your FFC well before the 31 October 2016 deadline, to alleviate bottlenecks that occur when the EAAB IT system becomes over-stretched during deadline periods.
The detailed schedule of the new fees is available on https://www.eaab.org.za/registrations/schedule_of_fees.
When the renewal period commences on 1 August 2016, the renewal process, for individuals, firms and branches will be solely online on the Portal.
Policy for the Granting of Educational Exemptions to Non-Executive Directors of Estate Agency Companies
The Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) has announced that non-executive directors of estate agencies need no longer comply with all the educational requirements applicable to estate agents.
Until now, all directors of limited companies trading as estate agencies had to comply with very strenuous requirements, i.e. an internship of one year, obtaining NQF4 and NQF5 property qualifications, as well as passing the Professional Designation Exam (PDE). We believe this concession should be extended to directors not directly involved in the selling of property or the supervising of agents doing so i.e. Financial and Marketing directors.
Please see the full notice from the EAAB as well as an article from Jan le Roux.
Announcement_Granting of Educational Exemptions to NonExecutive Directors_EAAB
Educational Requirements Scrapped for Non-Executive Directors Article – Jan le Roux
Audit Report Submissions: FIC ORG ID Numbers
We are aware of the problems in respect of communicating with FIC to obtain the necessary ORG ID’s required for the submission of audit reports to the EAAB. Thank you to all of you for bringing this to our attention.
We have subsequently met with the EAAB who have assured us they will be taking this matter up with the FIC and we will report back once we have clarity.
In the interim the EAAB Audit Compliance Department has advised that Principals must request that their auditors submit the reports without the ORG ID and the system will generate a return mailer notifying them that they have 30 days in which to submit the missing information.
We have also been assured that, provided audit reports are submitted timeously, agents will not be marginalised due to the problems experienced with FIC in obtaining ORG ID Numbers.
Please see the following notice from the EAAB in this respect.
AUDIT REPORT SUBMISSIONS – NEW FIC NUMBERS
Registration of Company’s & Cc’s in Terms of the Regulations of February 2016
Companies and Closed Corporations with a turnover not exceeding R2,500,000 in the previous year are exempted from paying the levy of R1,200.00
In respect of the above “the audit report submission require declaring of the annual turnover”. The EAAB system will automatically exempt firms who have declared, through their audit report submission, an annual turnover of R2.5 million or less.
Should you experience problems in this regard please contact info@rebosa.co.za
Real Estate Safety Information
Rebosa extends its heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the late Hanle Lategan. Following her tragic and senseless death, we include some tips on Agent Safety and various APPs that can be downloaded for agent protection. We also advise the use of APPs like “Watch Over Me“ that can enhance safety for all. It will be worthwhile looking at this. Also visit our website to watch a video on keeping safe, courtesy of RE/MAX.
Retrospective FLISP
Rebosa recently met with the Department of Human Settlements Western Cape to unpack the Retrospective FLISP offering. Read the brochure below for more information.
1 Learner – 1 Estate Agency Programme
You can find a summary of the progress of the 1 Learner – 1 Estate Agency Programme below:-
1 Learner – 1 Estate Agency Programme
Queries: – EAAB Contact Information and Email Addresses
The only way one can lodge a query with the EAAB is by using the relevant email addresses pertaining to the department where your query is housed.
Please take note of the various Departments and their respective email addresses. Unless these departments are in receipt of your queries, it is almost impossible for Rebosa to intervene. Whilst we try our utmost to fast-track and resolve queries, if they are not lodged in the right department we do not even have a starting point.
Following are email addresses on which to address the EAAB with all relevant queries:-
CPD:
CPD payment proofs and invoice request: finance@eaab.org.za
CPD general queries: cpd@eaab.org.za
PDE:
PDE payment related: finance@eaab.org.za
PDE postponement requests: pde@eaab.org.za
Appeal against exam results: resultsappeal@eaab.org.za
STUDY GUIDES FOR PDE preparation:
-Study Guide matters and requests: studgyguides@eaab.org.za
INTERN LOGBOOK AND STATUS UPGRADE RELATED:
molly.musi@eab.org.za
UPDATE OF EDUCATION STATUS INCLUDING SENDING OF EXAM & EXEMPTION CERTIFICATES
upgrades@eaab.org.za
APPLICATION FOR PDE EXEMPTION (2003-2008 FFC Exemption-related):
exemptions@eaab.org.za
APPLICATIONS FOR EQUIVALENCY EXEMPTIONS (based on academic achievements):
mamiki.seabela@eaab.org.za
OVER 60 YEARS RELATED EXEMPTIONS:
lungile.mntambo@eaab.org.za
Online New Registrations, Issuance of Fidelity Fund Certificates, Deregistrations and Employment Changes
Following is an important notice in respect of the above:-
Online Issuance of FFCs, Deregistrations and Employment Changes
EAAB Reference Numbers for Payment
We would once again like to reiterate the importance of only using your 7 digit reference number (and NOTHING else) when making payment for any EAAB transactions i.e. FFCs, CPD etc.
Please only use your 7 digit number as reference. Do not put your initials, name or surname before or after the number. Only the number must reflect in the reference otherwise the system will not acknowledge your payment and this will result in many hours lost, trying to track and allocate payments, unnecessarily.
CPD Catch-up
This serves as a further reminder to all members who have not signed up for the CPD programme to do so as a matter of extreme urgency. Failure to comply and obtain the necessary CPD points for the 2015 and 2016 CPD cycle will have serious repercussions when the time comes to renew FFCs.
Please complete your Personal Development Plan on your MyCPD portal and obtain your outstanding 2015 CPD points by accessing the E-Learning Platform.
Fidelity Fund Certificates
With effect from 1 July 2016, the EAAB will no longer print and post Fidelity Fund Certificates (FFCs).
Once an FFC has been issued, the original FFC (in full colour) will be emailed to the estate agent and uploaded on the MyEAAB Agents Portal (accessible through the EAAB website via the link https://www.eaab.org.za/myffc) to enable the estate agent to view, print and/or download the FFC.
Renewal of Fidelity Fund Certificates
With effect from 1 July 2016, the sole manner of renewing FFCs will be through the MyEAAB Agents Portal, accessible through the EAAB website via the link https://www.eaab.org.za/myffc.
Audit Submissions & EAAB IT System Problems
We have learnt that some of our members whose auditors entered the year end as 29 February 2016 received emails from the EAAB requesting confirmation of change of year-end. We have been advised by the EAAB that Estate agencies who have received this request of a signed letter confirming change of financial year-end to ignore the request.
The EAAB is in the process of addressing this system issue and in the meantime, auditors of estate agencies are advised to enter the February financial year-end as 28 February instead of 29 February when submitting the audit reports on the MyEAAB Auditors Portal. 2016 being a leap year was not taken into account and the system did not factor in the extra day in February.
