Chuka Uroko
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n the coming days and months, it would no
longer be business-as-usual in the estate agency practice in Lagos State as the
state government is out now with stringent regulations and codes of conduct for
practitioners.
The state government says it is worried by
the fraudulent and unwholesome activities of bad elements in the practice whose
mission is to defraud and extort money from unsuspecting members of the public looking for houses to buy or rent. And to
underscore its resolve to sanitise this practice, the state government has
created a department in the Ministry of Housing known as Lagos State Real
Estate Transaction Department (LASRETRAD).
Jimoh Ajao, the special adviser to the
governor on housing, explained at the inauguration of the department, about a
year ago, that it was set up to monitor compliance with the state’s Tenancy and
Criminal Laws as they relate to real estate transaction and other legislation on
land transactions in the state; license estate agents, issue and renew their
licenses annually and ensure that payment of necessary charges and fees are
made.
Also weekend at a workshop organised by the
department for the estate agents, Ajao announced that a training academy was
being planned for the untrained and unenlightened estate agents because,
according to him, confidence in the business of real estate in the state must
be established.
In his keynote address at the workshop with
the theme, ‘Code of Conduct of Estate Agency Practice in Lagos State’, Ade
Ipaye, the state’s attorney general and commissioner for justice, noted that
housing was critical to good governance, stressing that estate agency practice
was of essence to the state.
He noted that the challenge of government’s
effort at sanitising this practice is never to go back, hence the need for the
practitioners to take LASRETRAD seriously and ensure that they not only get
registered but also comply with the necessary regulations and code of conduct
for the practice.
Source: BusinessDay
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