Yes.  Every estate agency, irrespective of size, must comply with the Financial Intelligence Centre Act.  It must establish written compliance procedures, train all its agents and staff in them, and appoint an in-house compliance officer to ensure that the procedures are followed.

The main compliance requirements are:  verifying clients' (e.g. sellers and landlords) identities before doing business with them;  keeping their verification documents (e.g. photocopies of ID documents) on file for five years;  and reporting any suspicious or unusual property transactions to the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC).

Please see the FIC website (www.fic.gov.za) for further information and click here for an FIC information flyer (Nov 2010) for estate agents/agencies.