New Government Measures Announced to Improve Practices

Date Published 27 April 2018

The government has announced measures that will, in it's words, ‘professionalise' house buying and the estate agency business….and about time to in my opinion!

The government says they will insist that all sales and letting agents hold a professional qualification and be transparent about fees and referral fees to third parties.

They also plan to introduce voluntary reservation agreements to help prevent sales falling through and to crack down on gazumping.They will also look at the speed of which a sales transaction takes and initiate measures to speed this up.

All in all, the government is looking to finally overhaul the estate agency business and drag it screaming into a respected and transparent profession.

In most other countries in the world, anyone dealing in selling properties is classed as a respected and professional career person, I may go as far as they are up there with solicitors and financial advisors, in this country, anyone, and I do mean anyone, can set up an estate agent or go to work for an estate agent and start selling and valuing properties on day one, with no training and no knowledge. Outrageous as that sounds, it actually happens on a daily basis.

Most people assume that all estate agents are qualified….wrong, in fact Lesley Hooks Estate Agents is one of the few agents in our area who are fully qualified in both sales and lettings, being members of the national association of estate agents (NAEA) and the association of residential lettings agents (ARLA) Both these associations have now merged under the one banner of ‘Propertymark'

You really need to ask yourself, would you let an electrician rewire your house if they weren't qualified? Would you let a hairdresser cut your hair if they weren't qualified? Would you let a surgeon operate on you if they weren't qualified? I suspect the answer is no! Then why do people allow estate agents to deal with the biggest purchase and sale of their life when they are not qualified? I rest my case!