Can you raise a complaint against a Dishonest property agent?

April 2011

With the recent set up of Council of Estate Agencies, Estate agents (Licensing and Registration) Regulations 2010 and the Estate Agents (Fees) Regulations 2010 will take effect on 1 November 2010. (http://www.cea.gov.sg/cea/content/index.html) it may be easier to complain against any errant singapore property agents. In the current regulation, agents can no longer represent buyer and seller in a single deal, but we believe that this does not go far enough.

There is also a rule in which agents cannot refer home owners to money lenders. Shouldn’t CEA ban agents from striking deals with bankers and lawyers and pocketing illegal kick backs?

Agents are still happily making referrals to lawyers and banks. This is a serious problem and we should highlight here so that in case you are a victim, you could raise this issue with Council of Estate Agencies.

Agents like to strike deals with lawyers to give them kick back. So where is the extra fees coming from? The lawyer (those bad ones) will go about charging the home buyer more in order to pay out the commission. Not only that, agents also work with companies that have pre-arranged ELEVATED legal fees with some law firms. This extra cost is passed on the home buyer. These illegal companies then pass on this extra commission gained as a result of illegal legal fee kick back to the agents. This is illegal under current law as lawyers cannot give out commission from their law fee.

Property agents also push you towards unattractive home loan rates just so as to benefit from the legal fees kick back.

It is always useful to note down the time, date of communication with the property agent. And try to communicate more with Emails and get them to confirm their facts via email. Do not rely too much on verbal conversation.

Attached here is a property agent complaint form which we downloaded from the CEA website. (Please note, you should always check the CEA website to ensure that the form is up to date, we only provide a convenience and are not liable to any losses whatsoever from using the form) A property agent complaint form is available at property buyer. You can contact them at loans@propertybuyer.com.sg

CEA Property Agent Complaint Form is available upon request.

Reasonable Legal Conveyancing Fee Guide – Apr 2011

HDB home loan conveyancing for Resale HDB
The reasonable rate inclusive of

HDB Refinance law fees

Total (Inclusive of Mortgage stamp fee) is $1900 to $2300.

For Private Property Loan- Buying a New Condo under construction

Total (Inclusive of Mortgage Stamp fee) is $2500 (for near to TOP) to $3500 (for those many years later)

The higher fees is due to the fact that many buildings which are going to get the Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) may be getting it late, therefore there is more administrative cost on the part of legal conveyancing as they will need to keep track for a longer period of time.

For Private residential home loan – Newly completed condominium

Total (Include of mortgage stamp fee) is $2500 to $3210.

The price varies a bit, depending on the law firm and the banks. Some banks are deemed more troublesome at the back end, therefore some law firms charge more. But there is a limit to it, so the above prices can be used as a guide.

Legal fees for Refinancing Private Property

Total (Including of mortgage stamp fee) is $2500 to $2800.

The price is lower as the complexity for refinancing is typically lower. $2500 is the norm.

Legal Property loan conveyance rate – When does it become expensive?

The rates can be quite arbitrary from our experience, so you really need to know how to bargain. And also, the lawyers will not be very business minded from our experience. Sometimes, some dishonest ones will have a secret deal with a property agent.

Law firms may charge you more under some of the following conditions: -

Not enough time to exercise option and extensions may be required.
Exercise dates falling into public holidays (maybe)
Faster completion dates such as 6 to 8 weeks.
complicated CPF issues.
Multiple people in a tenancy in common, with change of fractional ownership.
Where it concerns Bridging loans with tight time-frames or Construction loan.
being in cahoots with dishonest agents, charging you higher without reason and paying agent a commission.
Not corrupt, but legal conveyancing is not their core business and hence they charge a higher price.
Some lawyers claim that properties above 2m to 3m tends to face more potential issues, such as the property being challenged as part of a family estate or other complicated issues.
Involving probate cases and estate issues.
How do you know if you are over-charged?

You could have over-paid very dearly, but that does not necessarily mean you have been cheated by the property agents. Some times, you simply have been hoodwinked by the lawyers who charge you a higher fee. But these lawyers are not illegal, they simply charge you a higher rate that is higher than the market norm. In case the lawyer gives a kick-back to the property agent and then over-charge you, you have been cheated by the property agent.

Although the law society fee recommendation stipulates a higher fee, the free market has stabilized on the above fees which we have highlighted and hardly anyone uses the recommended fee.

In case you have paid higher than the highest range there, you can take down your property agent’s license number and raise a complaint in case the bank and/or the law firm was referred to you by the property agent.

Do note, these fees are what we see as reasonable range, and these ranges may change over time. And we will make no guarantees to update you again when that happens.

In case you want to know if you had been cheated, feel free to give us a call, even if you are not taking a home loan with us, we’re pleased to assist.

write to loans at propertybuyer.com.sg perhaps we can go through your case to let us know if you have been cheated.

SMS Singapore home loans mortgage consultants at: +65 9782 8606

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