The dream of a separate membership organisation for non-corporate estate agents is over after The Charter for Independent Estate and Lettings Agents (CIELA) last night announced that too few had signed up to join for a full launch.

This follows an announcement in early August that just 5% of agents who had showed an interest in joining the organisation had committed to pay its pre-launch monthly membership fee of £35.

CIELA’s flame has burned bright since it kicked off in January this year with a dozen founding members led by property software businessman Charlie Wright.

As well as promising to fight the influence of the big corporate agents, unfair practices within the industry and the threat of online agents, CIELA also took on Purplebricks head-on, asking it to withdraw its ‘comparative-fee’ TV advertising and submitting a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority *(ASA) about it.

A decision by the ASA about the complaint is due “within weeks”, it says.

But despite the founding members (pictured, left) launching a six-month consultation pre-launch period in April that finished on Saturday, CIELA says “insufficient members has been achieved for a full launch”, blaming the current tough trading conditions which it says agents have told it are the “toughest known for 25 years”.

CIELA says it is now holding discussions with undisclosed third parties to create an alliance that would enable CIELA to fully form – presumably one of the smaller membership organisations within the industry – but if those talks fail CIELA will be mothballed “for a any potential future revival”.

“CIELA remains concerned for the future of many independent agents who are losing out to the unfair practices of some corporate agents’ marketing, the illegal conduct of rogue independent agents and the downward pressure on fees caused by online/call-centre agents,” a statement from the organisation says.