How to check an estate agent with EARB

In Kenya, anyone who is paid to bring a buyer or tenant together with an owner, or to negotiate a sale or a letting, has to be registered with the Estate Agents Registration Board (EARB). Checking an agent costs nothing and takes a few minutes. This guide covers who has to be registered, what to ask for, how to check it, and what the public tools can and cannot tell you.

Who has to be registered

The Estate Agents Act (Cap 533) defines practising as an estate agent as doing either of two things for payment, in connection with selling, letting, mortgaging or managing property: bringing the two sides together, or negotiating the terms as a go-between. Holding yourself out as ready to do it for payment counts too. That wording covers a broker who charges you a finder's fee or a viewing fee to show you rentals.

The Act excludes a few people:

• the owner, acting for their own property
• an advocate, in the course of their practice
• a licensed auctioneer selling by auction
• an employee whose only payment is their salary, or who is only reimbursed expenses

So a landlord's salaried caretaker who shows you a flat as part of the job is arguably outside the Act. A caretaker who takes a fee from you for doing it is arguably back inside. That is our reading of the Act's wording. We have not found a court ruling or EARB guidance on caretakers specifically.

There is no separate licence for a firm under the Act. Instead, every partner or director who does agency work must be personally registered. EARB also keeps its own list of approved agency firms, which is a Board scheme rather than a legal requirement.

The penalty changed in 2025. Since 20 June 2025, practising unregistered carries a fine of up to KES 1,000,000 for an individual and KES 5,000,000 for a company. Many articles, and some official statements, still quote the older figure of KES 20,000 or two years in prison. That figure was replaced by the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of Terrorism Financing Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025. Kenyan courts have also refused to let unregistered agents recover their commission. The offence is the agent's. The Act does not penalise you for having dealt with one.

The two certificates to ask for

The Registration Certificate is issued once, when the agent is entered on the Board's register. It stays the Board's property and must be handed back if the agent is struck off.

The Annual Practising Certificate shows the agent has renewed for the current year. It runs to 31 December. A certificate for last year is not current, which matters most in the first months of the year, before some agents have renewed.

EARB's own public notices, including the most recent in April 2026, tell buyers and tenants to ask for both. A registered agent will have them and will not mind being asked.

How to check, step by step

1. Ask for the agent's full name, their EARB registration number and a copy of both certificates. A clear photo is enough to start.
2. Check the certificate itself with EARB's certificate validation page. Scan the QR code on the certificate, or type in the serial number printed at its top right.
3. Search the EARB members directory by name. On the result card, look for the badge: IN GOOD STANDING or NOT IN GOOD STANDING. For a firm, use the firms directory.
4. Check the Kenya Gazette. Each year the Board publishes the agents who have renewed their Annual Practising Certificates. The 2026 list is Gazette Notice No. 4432 of 27 March 2026, with each agent's registration number, and Notice No. 4433 lists the estate agency companies the Board has listed. Under the Act, appearing in the Gazette is evidence of registration, and being missing from it is evidence of the opposite. It is a snapshot, so an agent who renewed after March will not be on it.
5. Match the paper to the person. The name on the certificates should match the agent's national ID. Meet them at the property, not somewhere else. If you are dealing with a firm, the person handling your search should be registered themselves, not only the firm's director.
6. If anything does not line up, ask EARB directly on +254 741 088 144 or info@estateagentsboard.or.ke. Its office is at Prism Towers, 17th Floor, 3rd Ngong Avenue, Upper Hill, Nairobi.

What the directory will not tell you

The directory is useful, but it has gaps worth knowing before you rely on it.

• Registration numbers are partly hidden. A profile shows a number like 1**6, so you cannot match a full number by eye. Use the certificate validation page for that.
• The profile's status line can disagree with the badge. In our own checks, profiles showed an active status for the current year even when the agent's result card said NOT IN GOOD STANDING, and one of those agents was missing from the March 2026 Gazette. Rely on the badge on the result card and on the Gazette, not the status line inside the profile.
• It cannot tell you who you are talking to. Profiles carry no phone number, address or certificate expiry date, and firm profiles do not list their directors. A real agent's name can be borrowed by someone else. That is why step 5 matters.
• EARB does not say how often it updates the directory. For anything large, such as a purchase or a long lease, ask the Board.

Paying an agent

The Estate Agents (Accounts) Rules say an agent who holds client money must keep it in a bank account whose name includes the word client or trust. Those rules are written mainly around sale deposits. For a rental, the safe practice is to pay into an account in the landlord's or the agency's name, after you have viewed the property and signed, and to get a receipt. Do not pay into a personal mobile money number you were sent in a message.

The Estate Agents (Remuneration) Rules set the scale an agent may charge for letting: 7.5% of a year's rent for a lease of up to one year, one month's rent for a longer lease, and 5% to 10% of rent collected for managing a property. The scale has no item for a viewing fee. That does not make a viewing fee unlawful, but you are entitled to ask what it is for and to get a receipt for it.

If something goes wrong

Complain to EARB. Use its online complaints form. You confirm your email with a one-time code, give your ID number and contact details, and attach evidence such as receipts or messages as JPG, PNG or PDF files of up to 2MB each. You can follow the complaint's progress on the same page.

Know what EARB can do. Against a registered agent, the Board can caution them, suspend them, fine them up to KES 5,000 or strike them off. We found nothing in the Act that lets it order a refund. Every registered agent must hold indemnity cover of at least KES 200,000 against loss caused by their dishonesty, so if you lost money to a registered agent, ask EARB about it.

Report fraud to the police. Against someone who is not registered at all, EARB has no disciplinary hold. That is a criminal matter. Report it at a police station or to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations as soon as you can, with names, numbers and transaction references, and tell your bank or mobile money provider at the same time.

How SpaceYako uses EARB registration

An EARB badge on SpaceYako means the agent gave us their EARB registration number and the expiry date of their practising certificate, an admin recorded them, and the badge lapses on that date. We do not yet check the number against the Board's register automatically. The steps above are still worth doing, and they take less time than a viewing. Our trust page sets out everything we check and everything we do not.

Is the law about to change?

A Real Estate Regulation Bill (Senate Bill No. 35 of 2023) would replace the Estate Agents Act and set up a new regulator. At the end of September 2026 it was still at its second reading in the Senate. Until it passes, Cap 533 is the law, and EARB is the body to check with.

Frequently asked questions

Is it illegal to rent through an unregistered agent?

The offence in the Act is the agent's, not yours. But you lose the protections that come with a registered agent, including the Board's disciplinary process and the agent's indemnity cover.

Does a caretaker need to be registered?

A caretaker paid only a salary by the landlord to show units is arguably outside the Act. One who charges you a fee for finding or showing a house is arguably practising as an agent and needs registration. No court has settled the point that we know of.

What if the agent is not in the Gazette?

The Gazette list is a snapshot from March. Check the certificate on EARB's validation page and the badge in the directory. If those disagree with the Gazette, ask EARB before you pay anything.