There is a new man on the block who is running rental business under the name “Anderson Associate”. With posters plastered around town, he offers a free service to landlords and helps newcomers find a place to stay.
There is a new man on the block who is running rental business under the name “Anderson Associate”. With posters plastered around town, he offers a free service to landlords and helps newcomers find a place to stay.
However this business’s legitimacy came into question when a Grocott’s Mail reporter discovered that Anderson Associate was not registered with the Estate Agencies Affairs Board (EAAB), a vital procedure in becoming an agent.
“We do not have any Anderson Associate on our books,” said Tlhalefange Masela, a call-operator at the EAAB. Masela confirmed that it is illegal to rent out properties on behalf of others without being registered with the EAAB.
“You should have the registration printed on all your documents, like we do,” said Jean-Pierre Pienaar, owner of Harcourts. Pienaar recommends that potential tenants and landlords should check this registration when approaching an agent.
The board ensures that agents and landlords are compliant with the Consumer Protection Act. This begs the question that without this registration how Anderson Associates tenants are protected? When asked about his qualifications, owner of Anderson Associates, Bill Anderson said that he was not qualified as an agent but rather as a broker.
Property owner Phyl Lieshing first became suspicious of Anderson in the first week of August, when she walked in on him showing a potential tenant around her property. Alarmingly, Lieshing had never signed up for Anderson's services. “I had never approached him once,” she said.
However, this was not the first time Lieshing had met Anderson. Previously, he had viewed the house as a potential tenant, responding to Lieshing’s posters advertising the property. “At that point he claimed he was looking for a friend,” she said.
“But when I found him in my house he told me he was an agent.” The potential tenant confirmed that he had identified himself as an agent to her too. According to Lieshing, between coming to look at her house for the friend and returning as an agent her posters “somehow got taken down” and Anderson Associates posters went up.
It would appear that Anderson posed as a tenant to the owner and an agent to the client, acting as a middleman securing the difference in rental amounts for himself. However, as to whether this is how the operation works exactly, is not completely clear.
Home Rentals agent, Robyn Cooper, came across Anderson when she leased a house to him and subsequently found an extra two people staying in the house who weren't paying rent to her agency. She became concerned when Anderson attempted to rent a second house from her.
Director of the Rhodes Law Clinic, Jobst Bodenstein, explained that most leases have an anti-subletting clause making it illegal to sublet the property and that misrepresentation could constitute grounds for legal action depending on the circumstances.
If the tenant misleads the public by representing himself as an agent of the landlord, does not disclose the existence of an existing lease agreement and charges an 'agent’s commission', the subtenant would probably be entitled to cancel the contract and even institute criminal proceedings.
Anderson who claims to have been in business since the beginning of the year said, “I am just trying to help people who come to Grahamstown, especially foreigners, because I know how hard it is to find a place.” However, this isn’t enough, without being EAAB accredited means that regardless of Anderson’s behaviour, good or bad, tenants could find themselves with no protection–between a rock and no house.
Just days before going to print, Anderson visited Grocott's to ask what was being printed. "I don't want to be in the category of a registered agent, because I am a broker," he said. However, he has identified himself on several occassions as an agent.
