Real Estate Board Warns Of Harsher Penalties

The Real Estate Board (REB) is warning of harsher fines and penalties under pending amendments and merger of pieces of legislation governing the industry.

Cabinet has given approval for the merger of the Real Estate Board, the Commission of Strata Corporations and the Timeshare Registrar into a single Real Estate Authority of Jamaica.

As part of that process, the Board has now been tasked with merging the administrative functions of the Registration (Strata Titles) Act and the Timeshare Vacations Act under the Real Estate (Dealers and Developers) Act, which will be amended.

Chief Executive Officer of the REB/Commission of Strata Corporations, Sandra Garrick, told JIS News that the agency is defining certain terms to make the three Acts merge seamlessly.

“The fines are going to be greatly increased,” she said.

“For some of the areas which don’t have fines, we are amending the Real Estate (Dealers and Developers) Act, so that it imposes fines to drive compliance,” she added.

Mrs. Garrick said that under the Act, banks have specific responsibilities, and fines will be imposed where there is a failure to comply with these responsibilities.

“It is most unfortunate that we can’t let people see the value of operating transparently and we have to reach for the fines,” she shared.

Mrs. Garrick said that the REB is moving to “streamline the education of our industry, so that persons are knowledgeable and can offer excellent advice to members of the public”.