As part of the new Property Practitioners Act, which came into operation on 1 February 2022, the PPRA requires that a B-BBEE Certificate must be included in the application for either the first application or renewal of an FFC. Real estate agencies have until the end of October 2022 to obtain a B-BBEE certificate to be eligible for their Fidelity Fund Certificates (FFCs). It is therefore vital that all owners of estate agencies start preparing themselves for compliance.
At this stage, the Property Practitioners Act is not clear on what exactly a “valid BEE certificate” means for Estate Agencies. In terms of the B-BBEE Act, status levels 1 – 8 are compliant.
It is also probable that estate agencies will have to show a strategic commitment to transformation through continuous improvement of their B-BBEE status.
What is certain, at the very least, is that agencies will be required to:
There is a specific property charter within the B-BBEE codes. This means that property practitioners will not be evaluated under the general charter codes but are subject to additional requirements and lower thresholds:
An Exempt Micro Enterprise (EME) and a >51% ‘Black’-owned Qualifying Small Enterprise (QSE) are only required to issue an affidavit as proof of their B-BBEE credentials. All other organisations must be verified by a SANAS accredited verification agency.
A brief overview of the scorecard elements specific to the property sector include:
The Measured Entity will be assessed by a B-BBEE Verification Agency based on a 12-month period (the “measurement period”). The B-BBEE audit date must be set no longer than 6 months after the 12 -month measurement period has ended.
The below table reflects the measurement of initiatives per element in the B-BBEE Scorecard:
* Priority elements for Estate Agents
Priority elements have the greatest weighting and apply subminimum targets that must be met in order for the entity to avoid being discounted down a level. A large enterprise (LE) is required to comply with all priority elements. A qualifying small enterprise (QSE) must only comply with Ownership, and one of the others.
Black People is a generic term which means African, Coloureds and Indians
Chinese were declared as part of the definition of Black by a court ruling and is included under the category of Coloured. This sub-group constitutes less than 10,000 people nationwide.
The South African National Accreditation System (SANAS) drafted a guideline relating to the accreditation of B-BBEE Rating Agencies, also known as R 47-03 ACCREDITATION OF B-BBEE RATING AGENCIES. The document aims to clarify B-BBEE Rating Agencies’ roles and specify the criteria by which SANAS shall accredit them on behalf of the Department of Trade Industry and Competition.
SANAS specifies the following criteria relating to a valid B-BBEE Verification Certificate:
What does compliance mean?
Who Must Comply?
What are the Scorecard Elements for the Property Sector?
How are the Scorecard elements measured?
What is the definition of “Black People”?
What are the Criteria for a valid B-BBEE Certificate?
NQF4 Estate Agent Training Applications
B-BBEE Advisory Services
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