How radically will consumer act affect estate agents’ work?

QUESTIONS still crop up regularly in the residential property marketing field about just where the boundary lines should be drawn between “voetstoots” deals and those where the estate agent can, in terms of the Consumer Protection Act, now be held responsible for non-disclosure of a defect.

Discussing this recently, Bill Rawson, chairperson of the Rawson Property Group, said while it was clear that today’s legislation largely exonerated the person selling the home from being held responsible at a later stage for “latent” defects not spotted at the time of the buyer’s inspections, the position of the estate agent is not so clearly defined.

“As a member of the supply chain, in terms of the Consumer Protection Act, the estate agent is quite clearly expected to be exceptionally diligent in looking for and listing potential defects and, as I read the act, if for whatever reason he misses a defect, he could be held responsible for its repair, no matter what the cost,” Rawson said.

This interpretation of the law, as it applies to estate agents has yet to be backed up by successful cases in the courts.

Rawson said so far in property matters, there had been very little resort to the courts on Consumer Protection Act matters and it was quite possible that the more radical interpretation would be softened in practice, relieving the estate agent from at least part of the heavy burden of thorough home inspections where, it was often possible, especially for a non-technical person to miss a latent defect.