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Estate Agents

The Estate Agents Act, and subsequent Orders, lay down the duties agents owe to clients and to third parties, and gives the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) the power to issue warning or prohibition notices against those persons it considers unfit to carry on estate agency work.

The Property Misdescriptions Act makes it an offence to make false or misleading statements about property offered for sale (see link).

Both Acts are enforced by local Trading Standards departments and the Office of Fair Trading. For further information see our Quick Facts pages.

Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act

The Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act (CEARA 07) takes forward measures in the Government response to the OFT report on the estate agency market in England and Wales and amends the Estate Agents Act 1979.

From 1 October 2008 all estate agents in the UK who engage in residential estate agency work will be required to belong to an approved redress scheme dealing with complaints about the buying and selling of residential property.

Other measures in CEARA 07 to improve the regulation of estate agents will also come into force on 1 October 2008.

These measures will increase the grounds under which the OFT can issue warning and prohibition orders to estate agents and provide enforcers with increased powers to enter estate agents premises and inspect documents.

For further information on CEARA 07 and estate agents redress schemes, please follow the links on your left.