ERCAAN calls for upgrade of LASRETRAD to an agency

The Lagos Chapter of the Estate Rent and Commission Agents Association of Nigeria (ERCAAN) has called for the upgrading of the State’s Real Estate Transaction Department (LASRETRAD) to an agency.

The Guardian reports that the upgrade, they said would help in proper regulation of agency practice and  distinguish genuine professionals from quacks. The body had been bedeviled with controversy over the activities of individuals that exploit home seekers. In some circumstances, millions of naira had been lost to these people, which ERCAAN claims are quacks.

The Guardian reports that the State’s Chairman, Mr. Godwin Alenkhe who led a delegation of ERCAAN executives on an advocacy visit to The Guardian last week, lamented that LASRETRAD has remained a department in the Ministry of Housing nine years after the bill was passed to law.

This development, he said, has impacted negatively on the ability of professional real estate agents in Lagos  to regulate activities of quacks in the system, The Guardian reports.

According to The Guardian, Alenkhe, who was received by the Deputy Editor, Dr. Paul Onomuakpokpo, Assistant Editor, Investigation/ Special Publication, Kabir -Alabi Garba and Business Editor, Clara Nwachukwu, also extolled The Guardian for its unbiased, sincere and truthful reporting of events in the country.

According to him, The Guardian has  made immense contributions to the public on the importance of shelter through proper investigation and dissemination of information.

He however urged the newspaper to help correct the public wrong impression of the association, saying members are made up of group of honest estate agents that have been in practice in the last 30 years.

On the effort of the association to purge itself of unprofessional activities, he said  the body with over 62 zones has written to the state government, where it put forward an 11-point agenda on the need to upgrade the department for effective enforcement of the laws.

He stressed that the state government is losing huge sum of revenue for lack of proper registration of estate agents because LASRETRAD has remained a department under the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Housing.

Alenkhe also spoke on the allegations of encroachment by estate agents saying there was the need for role definition of each professional body in the real estate profession.

Read more: http://guardian.ng/property/ercaan-seeks-new-body-to-monitor-estate-agency-practice-in-lagos/

Source: The Guardian