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Perils of Patronising Real Estate Quacks
Many Nigerians are ignorant of the perils of patronising real estate quacks. The question is who is quack? A quack is someone who carries out a professional activity for which he is not trained or registered to do. At the extreme, a quack may also mean a fraudulent person or someone that is not skilled, or a charlatan and impostor carrying out services that they are not supposed to do.
Real estate quackery may be synonymous to crime, where those that practise such carry out services of the estate surveyor and valuer that are not registered by the Board regulating the profession.
Estate quacks are found on the streets, along with other professionals that are not estate surveyors and valuers, e.g. doctors, engineers, etc.,. carrying out real estate agency. Such persons are patronized because it is a market activity, property owners, developers, demanders and seller can choose who they relate to, so you get what you want.
If you as a property developer chose a medical doctor to sell your property that’s your choice, but its a wrong choice. A professional estate surveyor and valuer is the right person to carry out such service for you.
There are three advantages of patronising a professional estate surveyor and valuer, and they are the three Rs. They are recognition, regulation and redress.
Recognition means you have to go through somebody that is recognized by law, by training to carry out a particular service. The estate surveyor and valuer is the one that is trained and recognized. Then regulation, meaning every professional that is not regulated is not a professional. The state surveyor and valuer in Nigeria is regulated by a government agency called the Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON) that set standards of conduct, minimum level of education and ethics that have to be complied with.
On one property, no two registered estate surveyors are allowed to compete as agents, but quacks could do that. The third R is redress. If the estate surveyor and valuer commits an act which in the eyes of the law constitutes misconduct you can seek redress through either the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) or ESVARBON.
The estate surveyor and valuer is usually involved in normal valuation, compensation and resettlement issues, and real estate development. Beyond this, he is an economist and an expert of the built environment, every component of the real estate market and its activities, he is also a professional adviser who can advise on best decisions to take to get optimum returns on your investment knowing that real estate investment is capital intensive, if you take risk you lose.
Esv. Adamu Kasimu, Abuja
