Written Answer by Ministry of National Development on complaints against property agents made to CEA

May 6, 2019

Ms Rahayu Mahzam: To ask the Minister for National Development over the past three years (a) how many complaints have been made to the Council of Estate Agencies (CEA) about property agents; (b) what is the nature of the complaints made; and (c) how many property agents have been sanctioned by CEA for misconduct?

Answer:

Between 2016 and 2018, the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) received a total of 2,489 complaints against estate agents and salespersons, or an average of about 830 each year.

Most of the complaints related to service quality and unprofessionalism, such as no-show at appointments. CEA also received complaints on potentially misleading or inaccurate advertisements, and complaints on alleged misconduct, such as failure to declare conflict of interest.

There are three courses of action that CEA can take to punish errant estate agents and salespersons – Court prosecution, action by CEA’s Disciplinary Committee, or the issuance of warning letters. Over the past three years,

(a) 23 salespersons were convicted in court for offences such as the illegal handling of transaction monies, and were fined.

(b) CEA’s Disciplinary Committee took action against 6 estate agents and 42 salespersons for misconduct such as failure to conduct their work with due diligence.  The Disciplinary Committee meted out financial penalties, and suspended the salespersons’ registration status.

(c) Finally, about 700 warning letters were issued to deal with minor infractions.