The Property Practitioners Act (PPA), which will protect consumers, came into effect on 1 February 2022 and introduced significant changes for the property sector.
The Act applies to all Property Practitioners – which includes everyone selling, purchasing, letting, renting, financing, managing and marketing property.
These include a disclosure form which must be attached to all sale/lease documents and which must be signed by sellers, lessors, lessees and purchasers before any transaction can be concluded. A property practitioner may therefore not accept any mandate after 1 February 2022 without a completed and signed disclosure form.
In addition, the PPA also requires that property practitioners may not render any services without a Fidelity Fund Certificate, the display of which is mandatory. All property transactions must now include a prescribed clause guaranteeing the validity of the certificate.
Parliament is expected to consider the Land Court Bill and the Housing Consumer Protection Bill in 2022.
The Land Court Bill, which will allow for the establishment of a specialist Land Court as well as a Land Court of Appeal, is specifically aimed at accelerating the country’s land reform programme as well as resolving backlogs and disputes around land claims.
The Bill gives effect to ensure our approach to land reform is based on three elements – increased security of tenure, land restitution and land redistribution.
The Housing Consumer Protection Bill which was previously tabled in May 2021.
The Bill seeks to ensure adequate protection of housing consumers and effective regulation of the home building industry, introduce contractual provisions to protects new entrants into the home building industry, and address provisions such as a warranty fund surplus.
