RERA considers new fines for real estate brokers

The Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA), the regulatory arm of Dubai Land Department (LD) is keen to build strategic relations with real estate brokerage firms in order to organize the work at the real estate market.

This goal has driven RERA to consider new mechanisms regarding imposing fines on brokers now rather than brokerage firms.

RERA held several meetings with brokerage firms to discuss the issue of fine’s imposing, said Yousef Al Hashmi, director of RERA’s Real Estate Licensing Department. The meetings were aimed at consolidating and enhancing the transparency levels in the market, as RERA now is studying along with brokerage firms imposing these fines on brokers themselves rather than their firms after providing the rehabilitation training for them.

He added that so far RERA and Dubai Real Estate Institute (DREI) had achieved a lot in building a regulated market.

He stressed on the importance of that step in enhancing transparency as the broker will be directly fined in case they breach the laws and regulations approved by RERA and the brokerage firm.

Al Hashmi hailed the role of brokerage firms and their determination to preserve the rights of their clients. He thanked these firms for their constant cooperation in improving real estate services. He added that RERA is carefully studying the international indicators and works on boosting transparency and real estate environment here.

Sultan Al Suwaidi, Section manager at Real Estate Permits and Inspection Section, noted that RERA had already initiated a detailed and comprehensive study to monitor brokers’ violations. The preliminary findings show that the top violations by brokers were (hiding information from investor, cooperation with unlicensed brokers, failure to maintain the privacy of the firm and client, using telephone calls for promotion and advertisement purposes without obtaining official approval, arranging deals without the knowledge of their accredited office).

The study suggested that the imposing of fines on brokers in the case of committing such offenses violating RERA’s regulations as per the Dubai Executive Council’s Resolution No (25) of 2009 regarding fees and fines.

He stressed that RERA is working to support the real estate activities of individuals and companies within a legal framework that improves transactions at the market and strengthens trust and transparency between the relevant parties. He pointed out that RERA is working to create professional real estate environment in Dubai governed by clear laws and regulations.

RERA stresses on the importance of compliance to the concerned laws and regulations by the brokerage firms as they must register their brokers, maintain records of transactions, follow real estate laws, prepare an integrated database of offices’ locations, eliminating any fictitious office and canceling such offices from the register.