Archive

In the first of a short series of articles, David Beaumont, managing director of Compliance Matters, casts a professional eye over...

The increased focus on upfront material information could push up estate agency professional indemnity (PI) requirements, an industry trainer has warned. Michael...

Rightmove has launched a course for estate and letting agents to help them understand and remain compliant with the Consumer Protection...

Fortune favours the brave, as the saying goes. So, when you consider how upfront material information can and does make the...

Given their leading role in the recent upfront information revolution, interest in the work of the National Trading Standards Estate &...

If there’s not a book called ‘The Art of Collaboration’ then there should be. Update: a quick Google search shows there...

Millions of people use online property portals every year to conduct their property search, whether it be for sales or for...

The National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team (NTSELAT) deemed yesterday that the use of POA or “price on application”...

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has said it may consider complaints about ‘misleading SSTC listings’ on portals but suggests it may...

Trading Standards has advised agents to update listings once they reach the "sold subject to contract" (SSTC) stage. It comes after legal...

Agents will be able to grill Rightmove’s legal and compliance director David Cox this morning as part of the portal’s webinar...

They say that in fashion, if you wait for long enough, clothes that are hanging at the back of your wardrobe...

For an unregulated industry, agents have an awful lot of regulations to deal with. For example, there’s the mandatory membership of a...

Agents are being advised to go above and beyond the legal requirements for anti-money laundering requirements.  Paul Offley, compliance officer for The...

The work of the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team is “vital” it claims - and the case of the...

A banned West Midlands estate agent has today been sentenced to a custodial sentence of six weeks, suspended for two years, and fined £4,000 at Wolverhampton Crown Court after pleading guilty...

The controversial proposal by a PropTech start up to charge potential viewers of properties to let or for sale has been...

The House of Commons Library has published what may be the definitive record of estate agency regulations issued in recent years...

NAEA Propertymark says there’s no appetite that it can see amongst its representatives across the UK for charging people £30 for...

Propertymark says a new pay-per-viewing service is “interesting” but warns agents to protect themselves by abiding by consumer protection regulations. The warning has come following...

An estate agent has been accused of charging prospective clients to view a property. The claim has been made on Twitter by...

The Trading Standards agency team has outlined to Estate Agent Today the process it will follow to improve what it calls...

The controversial demands of Trading Standards for more “material information” to be provided upfront in property details have been criticised by...

National Trading Standards wants agents, portals and industry groups to come up with ways to provide basic essential material information ‘upfront’.  The National...

An industry group charged with trying to make house buying simpler and quicker says it’s made a breakthrough on ‘upfront’ information...

The Boomin portal, which incentivises agents to cross-sell and benefit from referral fees, is to receive advice on fee disclosure from...

“I’ve got 47 years of experience as an agent. Do I still have to get a qualification?” asked one attendee at...

A PropTech firm that regularly claims London homes are mis-measured in property descriptions has taken a swipe at Purplebricks. Pupil, a spatial...

To most people, purchasing a home is the single most significant financial commitment made across a lifetime. Given the impact and...

The Property Ombudsman is advising agents to use virtual viewings only as a filtering process with offers being agreed only ‘subject...

Future complaints about property raffles by individual home owners seeking to avoid estate agency fees will in future be handled by...

A leasehold reform campaigner claims estate agents face “growing calls to be held accountable for mis-selling leasehold properties.” Louie Burns, managing director...

An estate agency will pay out over £40,000 after being found to have misled customers and allowing one of its own...

When it comes to major issues confronting housing, and in particular the direction that the government would like to take the...

Our latest case study come from a recent news item to have hit the industry and national press. A disgruntled tenant is claiming...

You will perhaps have seen recently that the Government has decided to boost funding to the regulator, the National Trading Standards...

In our previous 2 blogs we have covered the definitions of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (CPRs) and what the practical...

In 2014 The Properties Misdescriptions Act was repealed and replaced with the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations, otherwise known as...

We are currently engaged in consultations with our members to help to find a practical solution to the concern of the...

Estate Agent Today is 10 years old this weekend. We hope you’ll agree that’s a cause for celebration and a great...

It is understood that an estate agent from Cornwall is to face trial over allegations that he misled potential customers over...

The Property Ombudsman has launched an online training module which it describes as the first of its kind.  The interactive module -...

A large part of the DCLG’s Call for Evidence on the home buying and selling process focuses on the role of...

The fledgling Charter for Independent Estate and Letting Agents has released to the media the text of a complaint letter it...

The housing market has not been short of a White Paper over the last few months, and while you might just...

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is the latest body within the industry to warn its members against portal juggling. Following statements...

An estate agency has been fined by a local authority for putting up a 'Sold' board outside a house more than...

With an anticipated “Call for Evidence” from the Dept of Business Innovation & Skills looking into the home-buying experience ETSOS is...

An estate agency has been fined after a trading standards team accused it of making misleading statements on its website. Warwickshire county...

An agent at the centre of the campaign to expose and stop portal juggling wants to know whether the National Trading...

With ever increasing obligations, estate agents know that compliance matters now more than ever.  However, being able to obtain access to the...

The National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team is warning agents not to engage in portal juggling - an activity it describes...

As a service provider to both Estate Agents and Conveyancing Solicitors from one platform, ETSOS sits in a fairly unique position...

Two initiatives appear to show efforts by the conveyancing industry to make its house transaction processes quicker and more appropriate to...

An insurance company claims that around 60 per cent of estate agents do not check with their vendor clients about disputes...

There have been concerns raised over new trading standards guidance for estate agents on having to reveal ‘significant defects’ about properties...

A new trading standards Guidance on Property Sales has been launched aimed at improving estate agency service to customers.  The Powys-based National...

The National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team has prepared a draft of revised guidelines on property sales, to replace the old...

The internet and rapidly evolving digital landscape has revolutionised the way people buy and sell properties. With some reports suggesting 95 per...