Archive

Estate agents working with international individuals can face a significant risk of encountering money laundering activities. The complex nature of cross-border...

EVER since Rishi Sunak stood in the rain and effectively announced he’d soon be moving house, Labour have been saying the...

In the current rental market, where legislative changes and tax reforms loom large, many landlords are expressing doubt about the viability...

The total value of the UK residential housing market is now worth £8.67 trillion, according to Savills, with the value of...

HMRC and the Treasury have been urged to improve guidance on anti-money laundering (AML). Agency trade body Propertymark has suggested that while...

An anti-money laundering (AML) expert has highlighted an overlooked part of this week’s King’s Speech that could boost the property market. While...

Estate agents and lettings agents have a legal obligation to protect themselves from money laundering and as such you must recognise...

For most of us, estate agents are key when it comes to the biggest sales and purchases of our lives. With the...

There’s been a significant rise in the number of so-called Suspicious Activity Reports concerning money laundering and the agency industry. Suspicious Activity...

In this latest article from the team at Iceberg Digital, they discuss how the digital realm is transforming Estate Agency.   The...

A veteran PropTech figure with extensive experience of working at leading estate and sales agencies has told the government to act...

Regulated firms across all sectors will be well aware of Know Your Customer (KYC) checks and their importance in combatting financial...

Fraud poses a significant challenge for residential conveyancers, with criminals often attempting to exploit the transaction process for money laundering purposes. The...

In a recent panel discussion at The Guild of Property Professionals' conference I highlighted the pressing challenges faced by estate agents...

Regulated firms, particularly estate agents, who take on new business clients are leaving themselves exposed to serious red flags by not...

Only two out of five UK adults are aware of what conveyancing is, while the number for those who are already...

Now the dust has settled on what many described as an ‘underwhelming’ Budget, we take a look at what two business...

OneDome is offering free digital know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) checks for estate agents using its various home buying services.  The...

Just one estate agency has signed up to become a UK-regulated agent to verify overseas entities for property ownership. The Register of...

Conveyancers shouldn’t give buyers and sellers assurances about building safety remediations unless they are confident doing so, the Law Society has...

There’s no question that trust is the bedrock of any longstanding client relationship. It is built on delivering on your promises...

Homeowners in the East Midlands, North East, North West and Scotland may be at higher risk of property fraud, research suggests. Anti-money...

In this latest article from the team at Iceberg Digital, they discuss their series of ground-breaking innovations announced at their annual...

Heat pumps are become more prevalent across the UK to power our homes’ heating requirements and they are only likely to...

More than half of agents have cited 2023 as a difficult financial year, research has revealed. Analysis by data firm Landmark Estate...

Go back a hundred years and property transactions were a much simpler affair. A group of people could get together in...

Consumer willingness to pay to speed up transaction timeframes is on the rise, research suggests. A survey by iamproperty has found 88%...

Home-moving platform MoveReady has launched a new game to raise awareness of new material information rules and help agents, buyers and...

SmartSearch looks at the importance of incorporating Source of Funds checks into KYC processes It is no secret that the UK property...

As domestic battery storage systems become increasingly prevalent in UK homes, enquiries about their usage and functionality are on the rise....

The role of a residential landlord has changed considerably over the years. What was once a relatively straightforward means of generating...

Digital transformation is now happening at a monumental pace, and dependence on technology is growing to new heights. In fact, the...

Homebuyers viewing properties during the winter months should be extra watchful for signs of invasive Japanese knotweed, which dies back in...

A client account is essential to your lettings business, but the rules and regulations you need to follow to keep this...

Hands-up who likes doing check-in reports? These start-of-tenancy reports may not be the most popular of activities for the letting agent...

Leading digital compliance firm SmartSearch has launched an innovative new solution to help professionals working within the UK property sector to...

As an Estate Agent it’s important to be able to interpret and understand the information that a Title Deed document presents...

UK homebuyers have expressed support for more digital tools to reduce the administrative burden of purchasing a property yet few have...

For most people, buying a house or flat is the largest financial commitment they will ever make. Which is why many...

Client onboarding and verification tool LandmarkAgent has announce a strategic partnership with CRM provider Street.co.uk. The collaboration will enable agency users to...

Agents are being urged to increase their efforts when it comes to checking documents to avoid potential claims. Paul Offley, compliance officer...

Homeowners who sell a property with Japanese knotweed and fail to declare it to the buyer are likely to face legal...

According to the latest English Housing Survey, there were 495,000 second homes in the UK in 2018/19 – a figure said...

Tackling economic crime is part of the day job for estate agents. But how can the latest digital ID tools help...

CRMs can be superheroes for your business, but not all of them possess the necessary powers to save the day. As...

Step right up and witness the extraordinary world of Estate Agents as they embrace the power of biometric checks, turning the...

Properties in West London are currently selling quicker than anywhere else in the UK, new research suggests. Analysis by lead generation technology...

Property fraud is a significant risk for agents, particularly as fake IDs become increasingly prevalent, and the economic climate remains challenging....

Conveyancing software provider Smoove’s flagship agency product has been “paused.” Smoove Start was launched last year, providing a platform for agents to...

Recent research estimated that up to £100 billion is being stolen in the UK each year, with much of it due...

A new product to help agents meet their anti-money laundering (AML) responsibilities has launched. Lifetime Legal has unveiled Smart Compliance, which advises...

Sales progression service ASAP has launched a new anti-money laundering (AML) product to help agents comply with due diligence requirements and...

Agents are being reminded to conduct health and safety checks on their listings as well as in the office. This is according...

The dreaded ‘C word’ – compliance – has been facing Estate Agents for years now and it’s not going anywhere. Looking ahead...

Eight agents were excluded from The Property Ombudsman (TPO) scheme during the first quarter of 2023 including collapsed online brand Doorsteps for...

Agents are being warned that they risk financial and reputational costs by continuing to rely on manual methods of identity verification. It...

As the first signs of spring begin to appear, we look at how letting agents and landlords can start the season...

One of the main advantages of a PropTech solution is being able to automate the time-intensive and repetitive jobs that employees...

New analysis may called into question the experience of firms approved to check the Government’s flagship register of overseas entities (ROE). The...

Agents using Reapit’s services can now access anti-money laundering (AML) platform Thirdfort. The provider has been added to Reapit’s AppMarket. It means Reapit...

SmartSearch, the UK’s leading provider of digital compliance, has published an agenda-setting whitepaper to highlight the anti-money laundering shortcomings and sanctions...

A promise to sell homes for £1 by Scottish Labour has been labelled as a “politically led housing gimmick” by estate...

From the 23 January 2023, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into effect for multi-occupied residential buildings. This is what...

Property professionals have given their backing to the idea of a universal digital identity for buyers and sellers to speed up...

Agents may be regularly debating increasing their fees but property buyers and sellers are already used to paying more for conveyancing,...

A majority of Estate Agent Today readers have revealed they do not charge for anti-money laundering checks but around a quarter...

AML experts SmartSearch warn estate agents that, with so many firms still hiding behind ‘opaque corporate structures,’ proper due diligence has...

Purplebricks has begun charging buyers and sellers a £60 fee for anti-money laundering (AML) checks. An online message to potential buyers interested...

Agents are being urged to keep an eye on their HMRC Government Gateway Account to ensure they don’t miss messages and...

Buyers should be mindful about the rise of so called ‘Insta-agents,’ a property body has warned. The National Association of Property Buyers...

Housebuilder Persimmon has signed a multi-year software contract with Zoopla. It follows the launch of Zoopla for Housebuilders in July, a new...

Inventory clerks and letting agency staff have been warned to put safety first when lone working or entering tenants’ properties for...

The Federation of Independent Agents (FIA) has launched criminal record bureau and directorship checks for all new and existing members. Graham Lock,...

The number of anti-money laundering (AML) checks by agents declined in the third quarter but looks se to be up by...

Northern Ireland has been named as a potential hotspot for money laundering. New data from anti-money laundering software provider SmartSearch has identified...

In this guest feature, Dillon Darbar, counter fraud manager at Network Homes, sets out why estate agents need to be aware...

The EWS1 bottleneck familiar to the new-build market has started spilling into the secondhand homes market, an agent claims. New-build homeowners have...

Conveyancing software provider Smoove has revealed that 30 branches across 18 firms have so far signed up to its new flagship...

What’s the difference between Centralised Ledger Technology and Decentralised Ledger Technology? Repeat after me; centralised and decentralised ledgers and Distributed Ledger Technology...

With UK interest rates on the rise, following the mini-Budget announcement (now since almost entirely reversed), and several lenders pulling mortgage...

Over the last few months, The Letting Partnership has seen an increase in calls from agents who are struggling to open...

The Government’s mini budget on September 23 was anything but ‘mini’ with several major announcements one of the most significant of...

If recent headlines are anything to go by, estate agents and the wider property industry are not just feeling the heavy...

Are landlords following the law? To answer this question, the Government grouped answers from its English Private Landlords Survey 2022 according...

You've finally found the perfect house. It's within your budget, has the desired number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and even comes...

Over the last five years, the Government has introduced a range of measures to regulate the property market, particularly in the...

Smoove has announced the full market rollout of its digital onboarding platform, Smoove Start. The conveyancing software provider’s latest tool provides a...

One of the biggest frustrations people have with the home buying and selling process is the amount of time it takes...

Connells Midlands has launched a new Shared Ownership Hub to help deliver affordable housing in the region. It will provide an end-to-end...

Tenants are becoming more discerning – not just about the properties they choose to rent but who they rent from too. With...

Agents are ‘wrongly’ relying on hard copies of identity documents to verify people’s identities in anti-money laundering (AML) checks, new research...

Conveyancing software provider Smoove is set to rollout a new flagship estate agency product following a successful trial phase. Smoove Start was...

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) recently published a list of firms that have received penalty notices for failure to meet their...

It’s taken Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the UK to finally take a much-needed step in the right direction to stop...

The check-out report is a critical point in the tenancy and has the power to make the moving-out process run smoothly...

Double-think, for those who have not read George Orwell, is when people are expected to accept two conflicting beliefs as truth,...

A compliance expert has warned that even though most agents will have robust anti-money laundering (AML) checks and processes in place,...

Purplebricks has this morning announced its long-awaited annual results, delayed since July 12 due to internal changes. It shows that revenue...

Smart conveyancers are making themselves indispensable to estate agents by doing their due diligence for them. Until now, estate agents and conveyancers...

Property firms are still failing to make basic anti-money laundering checks (AML), and some may even unwittingly be helping politically exposed...