The Estate Agency Affairs Board has warned a Ballito letting agency to shut up shop immediately or face legal action.
Nelspruit businessman, Hendrik Pieters laid a charge of fraud against the owner of Elite Services Ballito, Adele Brink, after she took payment of R 37 300 from him last November for rental of a holiday home, which later turned out had been already let by another agency.
This month Brink was ordered by the board to stop acting as an estate agent and to shut down her website and company email immediately. In an email to Brink on January 6, EAABSA legal officer Nqobile Thwala told Brink: “We herewith demand that you deactivate these as they give an impression to the public that you are a compliant estate agent when in fact you are not.”
She told Brink that the board would take legal action against her if she continued acting as an estate agent.
Brink’s website has since been shut down.
However Brink, who told Thwala that she had closed down her business, including the cleaning services, on December 31, argued that she had permission to let out private homes. In an email dated January 7, Brink said: “I have rented out private homes with the owners’ written consent as holiday apartments as they did not want estate agents involved in their property lettings.”
The board further ordered Brink to refund the Pieters’ the money she had taken as payment for their holiday rental. Brink told Thwala that she had offered to pay back the money in installments as she was now unemployed and unable to afford the full amount in one payment.
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