‘Material information’ tool to help meet Trading Standards regs

A PropTech supplier has been quick off the mark to launch a tool which it says will help agents satisfy new listings criteria introduced by the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agent Team.

The first new criteria are relatively simple - a property's council tax band or rate (for lettings and sales) and the price and tenure information (for sales) must be included on all property listings by the end of May.

However, later phases will be backed by legislation will make it compulsory for listings to include details of utilities available within a property, non-standard features like restrictive covenants that could influence a transaction decision, plus flooding risk and other elements.

In the light of this Teal Legal - a technology company which has already introduced the Home Owner’s Passport - has now announced its new Material Information Report.  

Two years in development, the report has been designed to support agents in complying with the new Trading Standards Material Information required for portal listings.

The HOP system automates the collection of the required information, from trusted sources such as the Land Registry, and then carries out the necessary calculations and assessments required under the new rules, meaning that the information is to hand at the point the agent lists the property.

Sally Holdway, director at Teal, says: “I think everyone is broadly agreed that upfront information is a good idea, but the practicalities of estate agents having to go away and find the relevant details for each property can take time, and impact how quickly they can get the property to market, particularly where there is quite a bit of technical detail to uncover such as terms of leases and rent review provisions.  

“By using a software tool to do the heavy lifting, the information required to get the property listed is available immediately.  And by using our API integrations the upload of the required data can happen instantly with no disruption to agents current processes.

“We see this new development as a huge boon for estate agents.  Our experience reflects the Trading Standards research that buyers respond incredibly positively to having more information available upfront, but perhaps more critically, they can be nervous where it is not available.”

Teal Legal, which focuses on developing new products for the property and legal sectors, was founded by lawyers Sally Holdway and Amy Bell, both of whom have substantial experience working at senior levels in the legal industry.