Estate and lettings agents could fall under the cosh of the powers that be and face the wrath of non-compliance and anti-money laundering (AML) investigators if they don’t get their  software houses in order sharpish

Agents are increasingly under threat of legal action due to issues with their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software not displaying the correct material information once a property has hit the property portals.

REQUIRED

In line with the new upfront information rules, agents are required to include the property price, tenure and Council Tax information and later this year and will need to include features such as flood risk, broadband quality and the level of mobile phone signal.

It’s thought less than two in 10 (16%) listings currently comply with industry regulations – despite property browsers becoming more savvyand collecting oodles of information.

Just last week Credas Technologies revealed that the average AML fine issued to estate agency businesses was sitting at an average of £3,815 – up 6% on the last financial year.

EFFORTS

Despite best efforts estate agents still account for the largest number of AML fines issued by HMRC since the introduction of supervision, accounting for nearly half (45.4%) of all fines issued.

Heather Staff, Co-Founder at Street.co.uk, says: “Agents have no choice but to comply or risk costly legal action and ruining their reputation with buyers and sellers.

“The easiest and most frictionless way forward is to code the requirements in.

“It is the responsibility of the CRM to guide the agent to provide the correct information for all property listings, and agents should be able to rely on their CRM, as their trusted tech partner, to safeguard their listings.

“Agents must be aware of the threat non-compliance poses to their business and demand more.”

Last year Street.co.uk launched its Property Management arm of their CRM for Estate and Letting Agents.