{"id":104985,"date":"2019-03-14T10:27:56","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T03:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/unlicensed-property-agent-taken-to-court\/"},"modified":"2019-03-14T14:03:19","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T07:03:19","slug":"unlicensed-property-agent-taken-to-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/unlicensed-property-agent-taken-to-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlicensed property agent taken to court"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nHer approach included introducing herself as a part-time property agent who could help landlords find a tenant for a commission.
\nVanessa Thien Cai Yan, a 43-year-old Singaporean woman, has been charged in court for allegedly working as real estate agent without a licence, revealed the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) on Wednesday (13 Mar).
\nCEA revealed that Thien\u2019s approach was to message individuals who had placed rental ads on the internet and introduce herself as a part-time property agent who could help them find a tenant for a commission.
\nOn 2 October 2017, Thien allegedly posed as a part-time property agent when she contacted a property agent at Carousell, offering to co-broke a rental transaction for a room at an HDB flat in Punggol that was advertised on the website.
\nThien allegedly said that she had would-be tenants that might be interested in the room, and asked for half of the commission that would be received from the landlord once the rental transaction was concluded.
\nAfter a tip-off on Thien, CEA said it conducted a surveillance on her online accounts. Further investigations showed that the accused represented herself as a part-time agent to potential occupants and to family members of an owner of another HDB flat in Punggol who posted a rental ad on Carousell. In exchange for her help, Thien asked for 25 percent of one month\u2019s rent as commission from the landlord if she managed to find a tenant.
\nSometime in November to December 2017, Thien also allegedly helped a property owner rent out a room at another HDB flat at Sengkang. She posted a rental ad on Facebook, secured a tenant, and then obtained commission of $137.50 from the owner.
\nConsequently, CEA brought four charges against Thien for violating the Estate Agency\u2019s Act. Three charges involved Section 28(1)(c) of the act, which prohibits persons from holding out as being ready to undertake, whether or not for payment or other remuneration (whether monetary or otherwise), estate agency work as an estate agent without first being licensed by CEA. The last charge involves Section 28(1)(b), which disallows individuals from acting as an estate agent without first being licensed by CEA.
\nThe punishment for each charge is a maximum jail term of three years and\/or a fine of up to $75,000.
\nCEA also advises consumers to verify if an entity or individual is licensed to undertake property agency work by checking its Public Register.
\nFind licensed property agents\u00a0who can help you in your\u00a0Singapore Property\u00a0search.
\n\u00a0
\nRomesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email\u00a0romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
\n
\nSource : proppertyguru.com.sg\/Property Market
\nRead more…Unlicensed property agent taken to court<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Her approach included introducing herself as a part-time property agent who could help landlords find...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-rjj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":44900,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/man-jailed-fined-23000-for-illegal-estate-agency-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":104985,"position":0},"title":"Man jailed, fined $23,000 for illegal estate agency work","date":"February 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Consumers are urged to engage only property agencies and agents who are licensed and registered with the CEA. Shakir Khan, a 56-year-old Singaporean, was convicted in court of two charges of conducting estate agency work without first being registered as a salesperson, or licensed as an estate agent by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26832,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/bogus-agent-charged-for-unlicensed-real-estate-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":104985,"position":1},"title":"Bogus agent charged for unlicensed real estate work","date":"September 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Shakir Khan was arrested in March this year after CEA officers suspected he was conducting estate agency work illegally. A 56-year old Singaporean man was charged in court on Wednesday (21 September) for conducting estate agency work without a license, revealed the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA). Under the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35630,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/this-week-in-ask-guru-rental-questions\/","url_meta":{"origin":104985,"position":2},"title":"This week in Ask Guru: Rental questions","date":"November 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r This week, in Ask Guru, we answer questions about rentals: Tenants who can\u2019t pay, utilities for a dual key unit, and being asked to pay commissions as a tenant. Question 1: \u201cHi Gurus. I have a problem. My current tenant told my agent they don\u2019t have enough money to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20902,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/woman-fined-16000-for-unlicensed-estate-agency-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":104985,"position":3},"title":"Woman fined $16,000 for unlicensed estate agency work","date":"July 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Under the law, it is an offence for individuals to handle property transactions if they are not licensed. A 41-year-old Singaporean woman was sentenced on Wednesday (13 July) to pay a fine of $16,000, in default six weeks\u2019 imprisonment, for acting as an unlicensed estate agent in relation to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26141,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/former-property-agent-fined-for-handling-clients-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":104985,"position":4},"title":"Former property agent fined for handling client\u2019s money","date":"September 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The cash amounting to $93,000 is the biggest sum involved, revealed the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA). A former property agent was convicted on Wednesday for handling his client\u2019s transaction money amounting to $93,000. Under the Estate Agents Act, it is an offence for property agents to handle any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":105767,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/man-fined-72000-for-illegal-estate-agency-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":104985,"position":5},"title":"Man fined $72,000 for illegal estate agency work","date":"April 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The unlicensed agent had posted nine online advertisements for the lease of private properties and HDB flats on public property portals. A 31-year old man was convicted in court of nine charges of conducting estate agency work without being registered as a real estate agent with the Council for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104985"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}