An Offence for Any Reg. Estate Agent to...Sublet, Permit...Other Person to Use his Authority to Practise Estate Agency

Other layers of safeguards to public interest that the Malaysian estate agency law provides are through:
1) the imposition of Code of Professional Ethics & Conduct via:
...a) Rules 83 to 110 in Part X of the Valuers, Appraisers & Estate Agents Rules 1986 ("Rules 1986") enacted under sec 32 of the parent Act - the VAE Act 1981;
...b) Standard 5 of the Malaysian Estate Agency Standards 1999 ("MEAS 1999") prescribed under sec 10(g) of the aforesaid parent Act;
...c) Code of Conduct as posted on the official
website of the Board of Valuers, Appraisers & Estate Agents, Malaysia under the power given in the aforesaid sec 10(g) of the VAE Act 1081;
2) Sec 24 and Sec 30 (of the VAE Act 1981) Offences and Punishments

To prevent conduct of estate agency by any unregistered person on behalf or in the name of "sleeping principal" and/or of any registered real estate agent ("REA") who "sells, transfers, sublets or otherwise permits any other (unregistered) person to use" his/her authority to practise estate agency (an act in contravention of sec 30(i)), the law (Rule 102) insists that the signature, name and registration number of the REA must appear on all documents prepared by him/or her (Rule 110(1)) as well as all documents not of/for administrative purposes (Rule 110(2) & (3)) - the Board has issued Circular (e.g. Cir. 2/97), among others, on what are and what are not administrative documents, for example, all documents on professional fees are not administrative documents - therefore, no one can sign such documents on behalf of the REA.

Rule 110 stipulates that (1)"Every REA shall at all times...observe and perform all his obligations under the VAE Act 1981 and any Rules made thereunder"; and (2)"...comply with every standard, directive, circular guideline and decision of the Board"

Sec 24(d) of the VAE Act 1981 makes it an offence for any REA who contravenes or fails to comply with any provisions of the 1981 Act or any the rules made thereunder including, of course, Rule 110 as stated above...

Now in the real life scenario, how do the REAs "sell, transfer, sublet or otherwise permit any other person to use his authority to practise estate agency" such that the law cannot easily touch them; but when there are fees to be claimed, they can (so they think) easily go to court to claim their fee(s)?


Through the foxy use fronts, veils, fictitious names or nicknames in what can be described as estate agency practice with calculated ambivalence, these law-breaking REAs think that they can have the best of both worlds: ability to go to court to claim fees and inability of others to convict or sue them - i.e. head they win, tail you lose!

Well, is there really such a perfect loophole for them to exploit?...More on this in my next post...

Cheers,

Douglas, GT TANHALIM