One of the main problems with our industry is a lack of trust towards Estate Agents. Why is that? Unfortunately like any industry there can be one or two bad eggs who do not carry out their work practices in a proper and professional manner, in other words they partake in underhand practices.
Buying and selling property is one of the most stressful and important events in anybody's life, whether it is a building site at £ 100,000 or a piece of development land at £ 10,000,000. The selling system we have is not very transparent and because of this we have to trust the Estate Agent who you are selling or buying through. No matter how professional an Estate Agency practice is an element of suspicion can tend to creep in during the process of a property sale. Sometimes this can be borne out of frustration at the competition for a property. Unfortunately in some cases there can be genuine concerns.
All Estate Agents are governed by the Estate Agents Act and must carry out their practices within the law laid down by this Act.
A number of local practices belong to professional bodies. For example within my own practice we are members of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). To be a professional member you must have obtained a property related degree recognised by the RICS after which you must obtain professional qualifications through the RICS. This takes at least 2 years after which an intensive examination process is carried out, enabling us to carry out professional work which other unqualified firms cannot do.
Unfortunately for the public not all Estate Agency practices belong to professional bodies or are licensed in any way. Those of us that do belong to professional bodies have been calling for all practices to be subject to proper licensing, as in a lot of other countries. It is my opinion that proper regularisation would cut out a lot of the funny? business. Selling or buying is the biggest financial investment you will ever make and the crazy thing is anyone can set up as an Estate Agent. You could be a Zookeeper on Friday and by Monday morning you could open up as an Estate Agent. It is not the competition that is frustrating but the standard of practices being carried out by some of these so called 'Estate Agents'.
I recently heard a story about someone who viewed a property through an 'Agent' (an Agent not affiliated to a professional body). This individual, expressed an interest in the property he was viewing and was subsequently asked by the Agent where he lived. He described his house to the Agent and discussed its potential value. A week later he happened to be looking in this Agent's window and spotted a photograph of his property. Unknown to him, and without any instruction to do so, the Agent had taken a photograph of his property and was offering it for sale. This gentleman rang the Agent's office and was told that there was a good offer on it and would soon be closed for offers. This may seem unbelievable but unfortunately similar practices are happening every day.
The public needs more protection from rogue Agents and I would certainly ask our new Assembly to look at the whole process and at the introduction of proper licensing of Estate Agents.
My advice is that if you are suspicious of some practices of an Estate Agent you are dealing with and you feel that you have a genuine complaint, contact the local Trading Standards Office and they will be able to assist you by investigating the matter further.
