The Fidelity Fund Certificate, and how an estate agent gets one

Who counts as a property practitioner

Section 1 of the Act defines a property practitioner as anyone who, for gain and on behalf of someone else, sells, buys, manages or exhibits property or a business for sale, lets or hires property, collects rent, or arranges finance for a property deal. The PPRA’s own list runs to twelve categories:

• Estate agents and rental agents, whether a franchise office or one person working from home
• Managing agents of sectional title schemes and homeowners’ associations, and the associations themselves where they do this work
• Auctioneers of immovable property and businesses
• Bond originators and bridging finance providers
• Business brokers, including franchise sales
• Developers who market and sell their own developments, including their sales staff
• Timeshare and fractional ownership sellers, property advertising platforms, payment processing agents that hold trust money for others, and attorney employees who do estate agency work

The Act excludes attorneys and candidate attorneys acting as such, sheriffs, and a person selling or letting their own property. Everyone else on the list needs the certificate, and so does the firm that employs them.

The three levels

Since 1 July 2024 the qualification is the Occupational Certificate: Real Estate at NQF level 4 (SAQA ID 118714), delivered through providers accredited by the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations with the Services SETA. The old FETC: Real Estate still counts if you already hold it.

Registering a new firm, step by step

This is the PPRA’s own list from its registration FAQ. Every item is a separate document, and the firm application cannot be finalised without the principal’s application alongside it.

1. Reserve the firm’s name on the MyPPRA portal, R330 on the 2026/27 schedule. The name is approved or rejected before anything else is uploaded.
2. Open the section 54 trust account at a registered bank, in the firm’s name, with the words “section 54(1) Property Practitioners Act” in the account name, and get a dated, signed and stamped bank letter confirming it. If the firm will never hold trust money, you apply for an exemption instead, by sworn affidavit; see below.
3. Appoint an auditor registered with the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors, and get the auditor’s letter quoting the practice number.
4. Gather the firm’s papers: the firm application form; the CIPC registration documents showing the entity and its directors or members; proof of registration with the Financial Intelligence Centre as an accountable institution; a valid BEE certificate or sworn affidavit for a company, close corporation or trust; a tax clearance for any firm including a sole proprietorship; and a company resolution naming the principal.
5. Pay the administration fee, R704 on the 2026/27 schedule, by EFT to the PPRA’s ABSA account with your 7-digit reference. The PPRA states that only the administration fee is payable for a firm; the firm’s certificate is free and the fidelity fund fee attaches to the people.
6. Lodge the principal’s application with a clear ID copy, proof of the qualifications and exams, and the principal’s fee. Each employee who acts as an agent then applies for their own certificate.
7. Display the certificate at the business premises, as section 53 requires, and keep it current. Every certificate in the current cycle expires on 31 December of the third year.

The fees: the 2026/27 schedule

The PPRA moved to three-year certificates and publishes a schedule of fees every April. The 2026/27 schedule, effective 1 April 2026, sets these amounts; the 2025/26 column is what the renewal cycle that closed on 31 October 2025 was charged at.

Three points from the PPRA’s renewal notice worth knowing. Payment is by EFT only, to ABSA account 405 203 3310, branch code 632005, with your 7-digit reference. A three-year certificate counts the year of issue as a full year even if you register in November, so a late-year registration buys you closer to two years than three. And principals are told to renew first, because a lapsed principal certificate cancels the certificates of the firm and every agent in it. The schedule also prices the things that come up along the way: a duplicate certificate at R580, an appeal deposit at R2 367, a section 4 exemption application at R2 200, and a change of employment recorded at R704.

The trust account, the audit and the exemption

Section 54 is where new firms go wrong. Every property practitioner must open one or more trust accounts at a registered bank, appoint an auditor immediately, tell the PPRA about both, and pay every cent of trust money, deposits and rent included, into the trust account at once. The books must be balanced monthly. Within six months of the firm’s financial year end, the same auditor must audit the trust accounts and the business accounts and file the report on the PPRA’s auditors portal. A firm with revenue of R2.5 million or more has its annual financial statements audited; below that they are independently reviewed, by the same auditor.

Interest on trust money belongs to whoever the written agreement says. Without an agreement it goes to the Fidelity Fund, and banks report trust interest to the PPRA directly, so it is not optional.

The exemption. A firm that has never received trust money, one that no longer does, a managing agent whose bodies corporate hold their own bank accounts under the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act, or a firm that has mandated a registered payment processing agent, may apply under section 23(2) for a trust account exemption. A brand-new firm that has never held trust money and never had an old-Act certificate emails a sworn affidavit to the PPRA; the schedule prices the section 23(2) exemption application at R2 200. A firm that already has a trust account must first pay out the money, close the account, get a winding-up audit report filed, and then apply with the bank’s closure letters. Until the PPRA issues the exemption letter with its effective date, the trust account and audit duties stand. Exempt firms still have their financial statements independently reviewed every year.

Two rules that cost agents money

• No certificate, no commission. Section 56 says a property practitioner is under no circumstances entitled to remuneration for a sale, a letting, rent collection or finance arranged unless they, and every director or member of the firm, held a valid certificate at the time of the act. A certificate obtained afterwards does not cure it, and a seller who finds out can refuse to pay. Courts have enforced this for decades under the old Act and the new one says the same.
• The mandatory disclosure form. Section 67 forbids accepting a mandate unless the seller or landlord has completed and signed the prescribed disclosure form listing the property’s known defects. The form must go to every prospective buyer or tenant and be attached to the sale or lease agreement. If it is missing, the agreement is read as if no defects were disclosed at all, and the agent may be held liable by the consumer as well as sanctioned by the PPRA.

Who cannot get a certificate

Section 50 lists the disqualifications. The PPRA may not issue a certificate to anyone who is not a citizen or lawful resident; who was found guilty under this Act or the old Act in the past five years; who has been found by a court to have acted fraudulently, dishonestly or in breach of a fiduciary duty, or been sentenced to prison without the option of a fine; who is of unsound mind; who was dismissed from a position of trust for improper conduct in the past five years; who is an unrehabilitated insolvent; who lacks a valid tax clearance certificate; who lacks a valid BEE certificate; or who has been found guilty of unfair discrimination. For a firm, the same tests apply to every director, member, trustee and partner.

In practice the PPRA treats natural persons as exempt from the tax clearance and BEE requirements when applying for their own certificate, and applies them to the firm. A firm with annual turnover under R10 million is an exempted micro enterprise under the BEE codes and uses a sworn affidavit. The free BEE affidavit builder produces it in the prescribed wording.

What actually goes wrong

• Selling before the certificate is issued. An agent who signs a mandate in the gap between paying and receiving the certificate has no claim to the commission on that deal.
• The principal forgets to renew, and every agent in the office is unlicensed from 1 January.
• A trust account opened without the section 54 wording, or a “trust” account that is really a second business account. The bank letter is rejected.
• The audit report filed late. Six months from year end is the deadline, and the PPRA publishes a list of firms disqualified for missing it.
• An expired tax clearance or BEE affidavit on renewal. Both are checked every cycle.
• Assuming a rental agent or a managing agent is different. Both are property practitioners in the definition, and both need the certificate, the trust account or the exemption, and the audit.

Frequently asked questions