Real estate agents are reporting institutions, in accordance with Section 2 of the FCA. As reporting institutions, they are required to appoint a compliance officer, monitor transactions, and file suspicious transaction reports to the FIA, among others.
To ensure that all real estate agents are complying with the law, the FIA has arranged for an exercise in which the real estate agents will provide information in a form which is uploaded on this website ( click here to download the form ). The analysis of the information to be provided will help the FIA and the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development to devise appropriate interventions for the sector.
Non-compliance with obligations for reporting institutions attracts criminal sanctions provided for in the FCA ranging from imprisonment for five years and a fine of K10 million in the case of a natural person and K50 million and revocation of business licence in the case of a legal person. Apart from this, Regulations are being put in place and these will include implementation of administrative sanctions on non-complying reporting institutions. The FIA plans to apply both criminal and administrative sanctions on non-complying reporting entities from this year.
More details on this are provided in the Press Release available here...
