New bill for realtors more oriented to safeguarding consumers, say experts
Kyiv, July 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – A conceptual difference of bill No. 8781 on realtors' operations drafted by MP from the Regions Party Ihor Prasolov from his previous bill of the same name, is its greater orientation towards the safeguarding of realtor service consumers, according to market players.
"If the previous bill also developed by Ihor Mykolayovych Prasolov was mainly oriented towards the protection of the realtor, the current bill has done a U-turn, and the major emphasis is laid on safeguarding the consumer of services provided by realtors," Oleksandr Bondarenko, the head of the National Council of the Realtors' Chamber of Ukraine, said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.
"The bill is not perfect. We don't idealize it, but in our opinion, if it is passed, it will be a considerable step forward," he added.
President of the Union of Real Estate Experts of Ukraine Oleksandr Rubanov and Chairman of the Union of Real Estate Consultants Viktor Nesin shares his opinion.
"The bill is quite [good], but I'm afraid its concept might be changed when passing through [parliamentary] committees," he said.
At the same time, experts say that to make the bill fully effective, national standards for realtors' operations have to be elaborated and a single program and standard requirements for realtors to pass examinations should be developed.
Rubanov also added that the register of realtors envisaged in the bill and the register of real estate service providers kept by the Realtors' Chamber of Ukraine - which will be available to the public - will allow customers "to see whom to choose."
As reported, MP Ihor Prasolov from the Regions Party has again proposed that parliament support a draft law on realtors' operations aimed at the regulation of realtors' operations on the Ukrainian property market. Draft law No. 8781 was registered in the parliament on July 7, 2011.
The document defines the notion of "realtor." Any individual who has bachelor's degree and passed through training and realtors refresher courses can be realtors. Realtors obtain documents after taking qualification examinations and registers in the register of realtors.
Entities involved in realtors' operation are registered individual businessmen with the status of realtor and with a realtors' operations certificate, as well as companies who have at least two permanent realtors who have realtors' operations certificates. Only a realtor can be head of a company involved in realtors' operations.
According to the draft law, the register of realtors and the register of entities involved in realtors' operations are kept by the Realtors' Chamber of Ukraine, which is a self-regulatory organization that manages the said registers and determines the procedure for issuing extracts from the registers.
Education institutions that have signed agreements on cooperation with the Realtor Chamber of Ukraine can train realtors.
The Realtors' Chamber of Ukraine has a board, a council, commissions and executive board. A council consisting of ten members is the main government body of the chamber.
As reported, in June 2007 the Ukrainian parliament did not support draft law No. 3499 on realtors' operations, the major goal of which was to legislatively regulate realtors' activity on Ukraine's real estate market. The bill was authored by Prasolov.
The Realtors' Chamber of Ukraine unites 19 public organizations, including three national and 16 regional ones.