The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is ‘considering its options’ on whether new material information guidance for either sales or lettings agents will be issued.

The existing guidance, which was launched to some fanfare 18 months ago by the estate agency arm of Trading Standards, was withdrawn after the legislation that underpinned it, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 was replaced by the Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

James Munro (main image), who leads the National Trading Standards Estate and Lettings Agents team, has made the comments during a presentation to Welsh estate agents under the auspices of the country’s landlord and agent regulator, Rent Smart Wales.

The withdrawal of the official material guidance on his organisation’s website, and the lack of a plan to replace it, means agents in practice face a difficult task finding out whether their property listings are compliant or not.

“There have been a lot of changes recently.”

“There have been a lot of changes recently,” admitted Munro, who said he realised material information had become a ‘hot potato’ within the property industry,.

“The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 had been put into the Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act 2024 and although the changes are quite minor, they do affect the way that material information is interpreted and applied to all businesses, not just property agents.

“We released guidance 18 months ago and that has recently been withdrawn because the legislation has changed – the Government is considering at the moment what the options are in terms of whether there will be any new guidance in relation to the property sector but the for time being if you’re really keen you read the act itself or look at the CMA guidance on the unfair commercial practices part of that act.”

Other options offered up by Munro to agents wondering where to get guidance on material information compliance include Competiion and Market Authority, which has issued its own guidance on the Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act 2024 along with similar advice from Propertymark, Property Redress and TPO.

He also point to a free CTSI pre-training online seminar taking place this Friday that agents may find useful.