‘Pioneering’ director moves estate agency to Employee Ownership Trust

The director of a Sheffield estate agency is one of the first in the UK to move her firm from traditional ownership to an Employee Ownership Trust or EOT.

Spencer The Estate Agent, which has a single branch near the centre of the city, has been in business since 2011 and is a significant player within its sales and letting markets employing 12 people.

This kind of company structure was brought in ten years ago by HMRC to promote employee ownership by enabling business owners to sell their shares to an staff-owned trust free from capital gains tax.

EOTs do not involve direct share ownership by employees and instead the controlling interest in a company is transferred to an all-employee trust which is held for the benefit of staff.

This type of scheme has had little take-up within the property industry to date, and Spencer is one of the first estate agencies to go public with its transfer to an EOT.

“When you own and run a company as a sole director, there must be a clever exit strategy in mind, even if it is for ten years down the road as ultimately you are solely responsible for all of the employees, their families, and their mortgages,” says MD and sole director Nicola Spencer (main image), who remains in her role at the helm of the firm following the transfer.

Fat cat companies

“So you can’t just decide to lock the door one day and walk away,” she adds.

“Also, for our clients, this means that absolutely nothing changes; there won’t be a new fat cat company taking over and making changes, or increasing fees and prices, we will continue in exactly the same way as we have always done.

“The only difference being that when a sales caller asks to speak to the owner of the company, they already will be.”

The transfer to an EOT for Spencers was supported by Scott Sanderson of chartered accountants Hawsons, and Paul Trudgill of financial advice firm Knights.