NIESV blames quacks for exorbitant agent fee, agreement charges

 

The Chairman, Faculty of Estate Agency and Marketing of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Mr. Sam Eboigbe, has disclosed that quacks are responsible for the exorbitant agent fee and agreement charges.

Agent fee and agreement charge are the amount payable to the agents upon renting an apartment or outright purchase of a land property or house.

Ebiogbe, who spoke in Lagos, while reacting to the outcry of some Nigerians, who decried the exorbitant charges levied on them by the agents, said that there must be a basis for demanding for agent fee and agreement charges; otherwise it would amount to a rip off of people.

He observed that activities of quacks in some locations are also causing the high charges stating that such individuals are just out to profit from every property transactions and they don’t bother whether it is necessary to charge certain fees.

He said: “For members of NIESV, we are not allowed to charge more than 10per cent. If you have a shop that go for N120, 000, you don’t have to charge more than 10per cent, legal fee supposed to be ten per cent. The charges asked for have various components. You are paying agency fee because the person whose service you have enlisted has to be paid for the services rendered for enabling you to get a space.

“There are terms and conditions attached to taking the space, which comes in the form of legal fees, to prepare documentations so that both parties could be aware of their contractual obligations. There are obligations the tenant has to bear; shop owner also has responsibility too. A lawyer would do the documentation and the services must be paid for”.

He lamented that people can’t just come into the industry and decide to profit the way they want without consideration for the financial standing of the would be tenants.

He said, “It doesn’t happen in other climes. That is why our institution is clamouring for a bill before the national assembly to regulate the industry. Stakeholders and customers should look for genuine customers to deal with so that they won’t be short-changed”.

Similarly, some shop owners in Lagos have disclosed how they were reportedly made to pay exorbitant amount of money as agent fees when they acquired their shops.

A businesswoman, Mrs Medinat Saka, who rented a shop in Berger area of Lagos, claimed that she rented it at the cost of N120, 000 per year, alleging that after the payment, she was asked pay to additional N50, 000 as agent fee, N60, 000 for agreement and another N24, 000 for the cost of electricity.

 “I didn’t expect to pay so high for agency and agreement because when you do a summation of both, it is about the actual cost of the shop. What I was given as agreement is just a document of about five pages that wouldn’t cost more than N500.00 and I paid N60, 000”, she stated.

Another renter, Mr. Chucks Odinaka, explained that in 2017 when he rented his shop at Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos, about N650, 000 was demanded for the cost of the shop while he was also asked to pay the sum of N200, 000 and N100, 000 respectively for agency fee and agreement.

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