Misleading investors, co-operating with unlicensed brokers or making phone calls to clients to promote/advertise a project For the 4,000-odd registered real estate brokers in Dubai, it is time to be careful. Brokers, if found to have misled investors, co-operated with unlicensed brokers or made phone calls to their clients to promote/advertise a project, can now face penalties. Currently, a fine of Dh50,000 is imposed on brokerage firms if they are found violating regulations despite warnings. The fine increases to Dh100,000 for repeated violations and even to blacklisting and cancellation of license. The Real Estate Regulatory Agency ( Rera ), the regulatory arm of Dubai Land Department (DLD), on Tuesday said it is planning imposing fines on brokers rather than the brokerage firm in case they former breach the laws and regulations approved by the agency and their firms. But, prior to that, all brokers will be provided a rehabilitation training programme. Earlier this month, Rera said it had imposed Dh900,000 fines on 22 real estate companies and brokerage firms during the first half of 2012 for violating regulations. Yousef Al Hashmi, Director of Rera 's Real Estate Licensing Department, in a statement, said they had held several meetings with brokerage firms to discuss the issue of penalties. "So far Rera and Dubai Real Estate Institute (DREI) had achieved a lot in building a regulated market. "We are carefully studying the international indicators and works on boosting transparency and real estate environment here." Sultan Al Suwaidi, Section Manager at Real Estate Permits and Inspection Section said the agency had already initiated a detailed and comprehensive study to monitor brokers' violations.reported by zawya. The preliminary findings show that the top violations by brokers were: hiding information from investor, co-operation with unlicensed brokers, failure to maintain the privacy of the firm and client, using telephone calls for promotion and advertisement purposes without obtaining official approval and arranging deals without the knowledge of their accredited office. The study suggested that the imposing of fines on brokers in the case of committing such offenses violating Rera 's regulations as per the Dubai Executive Council's Resolution No (25) of 2009 regarding fees and fines.
