Mark Jones of Remax Coast and Country's legally uninformed status of the Property Practitioners Act 22 of 2019 may be facilitating ******** conduct on the seller's property

Remax Coast and Country in the South Coast of Kwazulu Natal refuses to conduct themselves according to the provisions of Property Practitioners Act 22 of 2019 (“the Act”).

The property next to ours is in the process of being sold and the potential buyer started removing vegetation two weeks before ever putting in an offer to buy and despite having prior knowledge of the location of the land beacon / iron boundary marker, the potential purchaser instructed the bulldozer operator to proceed over it. This is ******** in terms of Section 35 of the Land Survey Act 8 of 1997, which expressly prohibits the damage, removal, or disturbance of any land survey mark or beacon without lawful authority.

The potential buyer is also trespassing by removing vegetation before the sale is even finalized. It is safe to say the current owners of the land would not give anyone permission to remove vegetation two weeks before they even put in an offer to buy as there would be no guarantee that the sale wouldn't be unsuccessful and leave the current owner with irreparable damage to property.

The estate agents were informed of the ******** conduct, but according to Mark Jones, there's nothing they can do.

Remax are the real estate agent facilitating the transfer and has confirmed that the purchaser has not taken transfer of the property as yet, and neither the seller nor Remax were aware that he had commenced with clearing vegetation on the property without the owner's consent.

Mark Jones's reasoning is that the damage to the property has been done and it would be futile to report it afterwards. This reasoning is flawed as the damage was done without permission and is thus considered the ******** offence of malicious damage to property.

Remax is not required to prevent crimes, but they are legally obligated to report it. In terms of the Property Practitioners Act 22 of 2019, property practitioners and agencies are required to act honestly, fairly, with due care and skill, and in the public interest, and to avoid facilitating or ignoring ******** conduct. Mark Jones's flawed reasoning is a clear violation of the said Act and is reasoning is facilitating the ******** conduct to continue.