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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 Fact Sheet pages.

Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act

The Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007 (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.

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

Other measures to improve the regulation of estate agents also came into force on 1 October 2008. These provide enforcers with increased powers to enter estate agents premises and inspect documents, and increase the grounds under which the OFT can issue warning and prohibition orders to estate agents.

We are planning to implement further provisions in CEARA 07 in 2010. We aim to introduce formal record keeping requirements for estate agents, who will be required to keep records of their transactions with consumers, including offer letters, for a period of 6 years.

Information notice – views sought on draft estate agents record keeping regulations and draft guidance to the regulations

Starting Date: 18-06-09

Closing Date: 10-09-09

Based on the policy decisions in the part 2 response to the estate agents consultation, we have drawn up draft record keeping regulations and draft guidance to the regulations (see links below). We are seeking views on the regulations and guidance prior to implementation. Also attached is a draft Impact Assessment, which assesses the costs and benefits of the proposed regulatory changes.

Responses to the draft regulations and guidance must be received by 10 September 2009 and should be sent to:

Graham Noyce
Consumer and Competition Policy Directorate
Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
Bay 418
1 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0ET
Tel: 020 7215 2135
Fax: 020 7215 2837

E-mail: estate.agents@bis.gsi.gov.uk

Government response to the consultation on proposals for exercising powers in the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007 and other changes to secondary legislation relating to estate agents – Part 2: record keeping, offer letters and statutory definitions

Draft estate agents record keeping regulations

Draft guidance on estate agents record keeping requirements

Impact Assessment of draft estate agents record keeping regulations

The consultation document and part 1 response are available from the closed consultations - with response page.

BIS study of the future regulation of estate agents

BIS has begun a project to look at the future regulation of estate agents. This study follows up the Government review of regulation and redress in the UK Housing Market, which identified gaps in the structure and basis of regulation and redress schemes, and calls by stakeholders for greater regulation.

We will consider the scope for consolidation in the light of recent developments including the Government review, the Consumer Law Simplification review, the Consumer White Paper, and FSA controls. The project will look at the prospects and options for revising the definition of estate agency and the evidence for change, taking into account latest developments in CEARA 07.

The project will assess the pros and cons of different ways of regulating estate agents that will be robust in differing economic conditions. The project aims to report in 2011. The study will run in parallel to the OFT home buying and selling market study, but will be independent of it.