Many agents ‘not filling in all material information’ within listings
Academic and senior valuer Helen Price has looked at over 100 listings and found many areas where agents are regularly not filling in many of the 12 fields required on Rightmove.
Estate agents’ compliance with Trading Standards guidance on material information remains incomplete, new research has revealed.
Helen Price, who is completing a PhD at the Bartlett School of Planning on the home selling process and is aalso a senior valuer, says her sample of 118 listings on Rightmove in two housing markets shows agents have some way to go before the National Trading Standard Estate and Lettings Team (NTSELAT) guidance, issued last year, is followed properly.
The 17 agents under scrutiny whether national chains or local independents operating within the two areas – Kirklees near Leeds and Telford & Wrekin in Shropshire – provided the Part A and B property ‘basics’ largely as required other than missing information on leasehold charges and ground rent but usually accurately reflecting the number of bedrooms and property type.
But there were areas where agents fell short. Perhaps the most shocking is some agents’ failure to upload EPCs to listings, which is a legal requirement rather than part of the NTSELAT ‘guidance’.
17% of the listings examined by Price did not have EPCs. She says: “This research acknowledges that listed buildings are exempt.
“It was also noted however that some Listed buildings had been provided with EPCs, and in other instances it was not clear whether the property was Listed.
“It was evident that one local agent had not uploaded many EPCs to the portal and would appear to be the practice of that branch. Price says it there appears to be confusion as to the timing of the EPC requirement.
While the government website says that “you must order an EPC for potential buyers and tenants before you market your property to sell or rent”, narrow time frames between instruction and listings make this difficult.
Fell short
Other areas where some agents fell short included the ‘accessibility’ field with 84% of listings blank, which can be a frustration for the UK’s 1.2 million wheelchair users, while ‘Utilities, Rights and Restrictions’ was left blank by nearly two thirds of agents.
Also, the ‘size’ field is dominated by a lack of data, with 74% of data missing, the research shows.
“While many properties do have floor plans with the floor area, there are properties without,” says Price.
“Now that the portals provide boxes for the key items of material information to be displayed, it is important that the information is entered,” she says. “This is not only for compliance with the guidance on material information, but there is research to suggest that ‘missing’ information in the eyes of a sceptical buyer signals [a property] that’s lower quality and/or has ‘issues’.
“The reasons why the opportunities presented by the material information ‘boxes’ are not being fully embraced needs to be identified. Steps to make the home buying and selling process quicker and more certain may result in an increase in the amount of work to get a property listed, but the rewards could be beneficial.”
The Neg approached Propertymark, which is currently canvassing its members on this topic, for comment. Its spokesperson said the organisation recognises that many agents are doing their best given the time pressures of getting listings up on the portals, and that it was early days given it is only ten months since the guidance was issued.
Price’s research took place from 1st July to 9th August 2024. Agents who would like to help Price should email her.
Research in summary
Interestingly – and most agents I am sure are completely oblivious – Rightmove says it can terminate membership of agents who are not compliant … this means you! If you look hard enough on Rightmove Hub it says – QUOTE ‘Are the (NTSELAT) guidelines a legal requirement? What happens if you don’t comply? Technically, this is what’s referred to as “non-statutory guidance”. A court would expect you to adhere to it and for you to have a very good reason if you are not compliant, but it is not “law”.
However, non-compliance with the guidelines could be viewed as a breach of the Consumer Protection Regulations which could result in a fine of up to £5,000 and/or up to 2 years’ imprisonment. From 1st July, non-compliance will also be a breach of the Rightmove T&Cs, which, for repeated breaches, could result in a membership being terminated.
There are also operational benefits of complying with the guidelines. Adding this information to listings will save you time currently spent answering the same questions from multiple different applicants.
No idea why Rightmove is not providing this service for its agents clients as part of their annually increasing licence fees. All the data is out there – with the 70% profit marging than Rightmove commands it is awash with cash, maybe it could stop giving so much to the shareholders and ‘invest’ it in helping agents. Then again why change a business model. On a separate point we buy at auction, and forget the 12 pieces of data that Rightmove require, typically there are huge swathes of omissions, construction, utilities, parking, building safety – asbestos etc, sewerage, heating, flood risk, planning permission, the list goes on, and as for leasehold you are very lucky to get anything. The legal packs for auctions have a paucity of intel, which given most are listed by estate agents prior – shows 90% plus are looking the other way. As prosecutions begin when the general public latch on to the concept that agents now have a greater duty of care – to buyers – a very expensive day of reckoning is coming. Which in a digital age – with so many proptechs providing solutions, does rather underline the Dinosaur nature of many c-suites in the UK realestate industry.
The form is simply absurd.
It’s time to eat digital humble pie and accept that an alliance of the technically illiterate got this very wrong and move on.