Tuesday 19 February 2002

Just trust Estate Agents - Real Ones!

Watch out for false Estate Agents operating in the Silver Coast!

These are just some of the rules that a Estate Agent in Portugal has to comply with:

- Be a fully registered company;
- Have the expression "Mediação Imobiliária" on the company's name;
- Have as principal activity of Estate Agents, secondary can be Property Management;
- Have the Tax and Social Payments in order with the Tax Office and Social Security;
- Subscribe a Liability insurance to secure their clients in the event anything is done wrong by the company of their staff members;
- The owners of the company have to have clear comercial & legal records;
- Qualify and pay to have a AMI license number;
- This number has to be displayed in the office, documentation provided, professional cards, merchandising & marketing tools of the company:
- Complaint book is mandatory in their office;
- Use and ID card issued by the Estate Agents authority (named INCI www.inci.pt)
- Their staff and owners have to comply to minimum hours of trainning in order to qualify to renew the AMI license every three years;

There are severall companies out there trying to act as Legal agents it is easy to find if they are or not:
This is how you can find your are with dealling someone potentially illegal:

On ground:
- They don't have an office and talk to you in the nearest coffee shop!
- They avoid taking you to their office coming out with escuses;
- They take you to their office which is located at their home!

On their website:
- They don't display a portuguese land line on their website (normally starts with a 2 - our office number is +351 262 183 332);
- They don't have their company PORTUGUESE address published on their website;
- They don't have an email address on their website just a contact form;
- They use Gmail, Hotmails, Yahoo email accounts instead of the company domain name;
- They act by theirselfs in a region saying the company is based in Lisbon or Algarve...!

When something goes wrong with your money or your new home who are you going to talk to???
The work of a professional estate agent does not stop when the property is sold. Each time you have a problem a good estate agent will be there to help you!