Fidelity Fund certificates for agents and agencies
Which certificate every South African property practitioner must hold, how to check one on the PPRA's search, and what a lapse means for trust money.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Real estate businesses in South Africa
An agent joins the agency in March with a confident manner and a good book of buyers. By August she has sold four houses, and the commission is ready to be paid. Then a seller's attorney asks for her Fidelity Fund certificate, and nobody in the office can find a current one.
That moment is uncomfortable for everyone, and avoidable. In South Africa, the certificate is not a formality to sort out at renewal time. It is the basis on which a practitioner may work, and for the agency as a firm it is tied directly to whether it may keep holding other people's money. This article covers which certificate is needed, how anyone can check it, and what the agency should do about its own records.
Two certificates, one rule
The Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority says sections 4, 47, 48 and 49 of the Property Practitioners Act require property practitioners to obtain and hold a valid Fidelity Fund Certificate (FFC) or a registration certificate (RC). The obligation applies to the individual practitioner and to the business through which they work.
The PPRA's Licensing and Registration Business Unit issues FFCs and registration certificates across 12 industries in the property sector under section 47, and administers exemptions under section 4 of the Act. So estate agency is only one of several industries the regulator certifies, and the certificate a person needs follows the work they actually do.
The PPRA's registrations page explains how practitioners obtain and hold a valid FFC or registration certificate across the property industries, and how section 4 exemptions work. It is the place to start for any question about which certificate a particular person needs.
Checking a certificate yourself
There is no need to take anyone's word for it. The PPRA's Practitioner Search lets anyone check a property practitioner by name or by their 7-digit practitioner reference number, or check a firm by its registered or trading name or its 7-digit reference number starting with "F".
Use it at three points:
- Before an agent joins, whether as an employee or as an independent agent working under the agency's banner.
- Before commission is paid, so the agency knows the agent held a valid certificate when the sale was concluded.
- When working with another agency, for example on a shared sale, so the agency knows the other firm is registered before it agrees to split commission.
Sellers, buyers and landlords can use the same search on your agency, which is a good reason to make sure the firm's own entry is current.
Candidates and the competency practice note
New entrants to the profession start as candidate practitioners. The PPRA states that its Practice Note on the PPRA Professional Competency Certification for property practitioner candidates, issued under regulation 33 of the Property Practitioners Regulations, 2022, is effective from 1 October 2026.
If the agency employs or mentors candidates, read the practice note itself and check how it affects their path to full status. Keep a note on each candidate's file of where they stand.
What happens to trust money when a certificate lapses
This is the part principals most often overlook. Section 54(9) of the Property Practitioners Act, 2019 requires a property practitioner to wind up its trust and investment accounts immediately and pay out the balances to the persons entitled to them if:
- its Fidelity Fund certificate is refused, withdrawn or lapses without renewal;
- it stops acting as a property practitioner; or
- it becomes disqualified under section 50.
Think about what that means for an agency holding a buyer's deposit pending transfer, or tenants' deposits for a rental portfolio. A missed renewal is not a paperwork delay; it triggers a duty to wind up the accounts and pay the money out. Renewal dates therefore belong in the principal's diary well ahead of time, not in the bookkeeper's in-tray. The detailed trust account rules are covered in section 54 trust accounts.
Keeping every certificate on file
The agency needs a reliable record of each practitioner's certificate, and of the firm's own, that it can show an auditor, a seller's attorney or the regulator on request. A simple structure in Achekam's Document Centre does the job:
- one folder per practitioner, holding the current certificate, the previous ones and the Practitioner Search result printed or saved at each check;
- one folder for the firm's own FFC and registration documents;
- tags for the year of the certificate, so expired ones are easy to spot.
Document Centre is a folder-based store where a business uploads files or whole folders, previews, renames, moves, tags, archives and searches them. When a new certificate is uploaded as a new version, the earlier ones are kept, so the history of each practitioner's status survives. Every stored file gets a SHA-256 fingerprint, executable files are refused by default, and every upload passes a malware check.
The validity check itself is a person's job, done on the PPRA's own search, with the result filed in the practitioner's folder.
A pre-payment check for commission
Before any commission is released, whether through payroll for employed agents or against an independent agent's invoice, the person approving the payment should confirm:
- The agent's current certificate is on file and covers the period in which the sale was concluded.
- A Practitioner Search result has been saved since the last renewal.
- For a shared sale, the other agency's firm certificate has been checked.
How commission itself flows through the books is covered in agent commission through payroll and independent agents' commission bills.
This week, run every agent and the firm itself through the PPRA's Practitioner Search, file the results, and put each renewal date in the principal's calendar.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
