Any estate agent not registered with the Estate Agency Affairs Board cannot claim commission from a consumer who buys property through them.

Yet there are those estate agents who have no regard for the law and harass consumers for payment of a commission even if they are not registered with the board.

Gugulethu Dube, 27, of Brakpan on the East Rand, claims an estate agent, Beverly Morgan of Bev & Diane Real Estate, is demanding a commission of R16000 for a contract she has cancelled because she could not raise the full purchase amount for a piece of land she wanted to buy.

Dube said she wanted to apply for a dual bond to finance the purchase amount, but could not qualify as her fiancé could not meet the affordability test and had a bad credit record with credit bureaus.

She says the estate agent then advised her to apply for a bond alone, which she did.

Dube says the site was going for R293000 but she qualified for a bond of R177000. She had to raise the balance on her own since her fiancé could not get finance.

She says the contract had no cooling-off period and thought she could cancel it at any time within two months as she was given that period to raise the deposit.

She also noticed that the land was being sold voetstoots .

In terms of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), the voetstoots clause is no longer relevant unless the goods are sold at an auction.

The CPA also introduced a cooling-off period to all contracts to allow consumers to cancel without a penalty.

Dube says the agent became agitated and started harassing her with a lawsuit, demanding commission for the work done.

When approached, Morgan admitted that the contract became null-and-void when Dube could not raise the deposit but insisted that Dube should pay her commission as she had done her job.

"My commission is deemed earned once all of the suspensive conditions in the contract have been met," said Morgan.

The suspensive condition on this contract was the securing of the bond according to the amount required as per the contract.

Morgan, who confirmed that she was not registered with the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB), told Consumer Line she became entitled to her commission when the bank approved Dube's loan.

Morgan said when she retired in 2013 she deregistered her agency with the EAAB and later obtained a certificate of competence in terms of the South African Quality Authority from Services Seta, which she used to trade.

Nqobile Thwala, a legal adviser at the EAAB, said in most agreements the agent will only be entitled to the commission when all the requirements of the contract have been fulfilled. If not fulfilled, then the agent will not be entitled to a commission unless otherwise stated in the agreement.

"It is also worth noting that any person who acts as an estate agent must be registered and should have a valid Fidelity Fund Certificate for the particular year," Thwala said.

She said any person who acts as an estate agent without being registered is contravening Section 26 of the Estate Agency Affairs Act, and in terms of Section 34 she or he is not entitled to commission.