Regulation & Law
News articles looking at national legislation and local regulation and the application of law to the residential property industry.
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Trading Standards says its report on estate agency referral fees is ‘imminent’
NTSEALT chief James Munro says ministers will soon have his organisation's report and that a decision on whether to regulate referral fees will be taken.
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Shocking levels of non-compliance with AML rules highlighted by report
Nearly a third of agents say they are unsure if they’re legally compliant with AML and just 65% believe their firms meet the requirements even though it has been a legal requirement for two years.
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Century 21 cancels franchise of London firm after twin fines
On Friday it was revealed that Century 21 Cameron Adams had been fined a combined £44,000 after two separate and damning court verdicts.
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Peterborough is eighth council to move Local Land Charge enquiries online
Peterborough has become the latest area to migrate its local land charge (LLC) search service from paper documents to a digital Register since the national scheme began 20 months or so ago. Its city council is the eighth large local authority to make the move to online, a service that is expected to significantly speed up the conveyancing process. This latest news is part of a rolling HM Land Registry programme to digitise the LLC process for both professionals and the public and follows similar roll-outs in Lambeth, Warwick, Liverpool, City of London, Blackpool and the Isles of Scilly. “Users are charged either £15 for an official search or can conduct a personal search for free. Search results provide information about any charges against a property such as outstanding planning permissions or listed building status.” It is expected to take several years to complete the project, largely because tens of thousands of documents have to be scanned and digitised at each council. Karina Singh (left), Director of Transformation at HM Land Registry, says: “Migrating Peterborough to our national LLC Register is a significant milestone for us as it’s the largest number of paper records that we’ve digitised so far. “This…
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Industry first: lettings agency fined twice in same week for property management offences
Century 21 Cameron Adams and its director Hasan Younis ordered to pay a total of £44,000 in fines and costs handed down relating to different cases.
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Should tech take over conveyancing? Have your say before it changes for good!
Moving home is moving rapidly towards a digital future and one of the ‘casualties’ of this upheaval will be the conveyancing solicitor, whose job is to change radically in the coming months and years. Regulator the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) says the biggest shift will be away from pushing forward a sale, and instead focussing on charging clients for advice. It also predicts that review websites like Trustpilot will soon play a greater role in soliciting instruction from home movers. “Technology will radically improve transparency for consumers about what they are buying and the progress of their transaction,” the report says. “Because of the Internet of Things, properties will maintain up-to-date logbooks with little human intervention.” HIPS again? The regulator also says giving upfront information about a property at the point of marketing – rather than waiting until later – will be key. The CLC’s new paper on the future of industry traces how the conveyancing process will change, highlighting questions that regulators, lawyers, estate agents, lenders, technologists and others – will have to grapple with. Chair of the CLC Dame Janet Paraskeva (left), says: “I think many lawyers will be heartened by the prediction that there will be…
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Investigation shines light on ‘appalling’ examples of quick-sale sector exploitation
Trading standards has told the BBC that it is extremely concerned by the ‘quick sale’ sector of the estate agency industry.
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Latest: Shocking details of Berkshire agents cartel case laid bare
The detailed discussions between the four estate agents involved in the Berkshire cartel case have been published by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), along with shocking evidence given by the individuals involved. These are largely emails sent between people working at Michael Hardy, Prospect, Richard Worth and a branch of Romans and are the lion’s share of the evidence gathered by the CMA to come to its decision on the cartel case. The discussions took place between September 2008 and May 2015 and were part of a ‘concerted effort’ to fix and maintain a level of commission fees for property sales in five areas. These were Wokingham, Winnersh, Crowthorne, Bracknell and Warfield. The combined £605,519 fines levied on three of the companies, Michael Hardy, Prospect and Richard Worth were revealed in December following a year-long investigation. Highlights of the report include inconsistencies in the evidence given by a Romans director during two interviews, who was also accused during the investigation of not cooperating with the CMA during it early stages. A director of Richard Worth initially refused to be interviewed but later relented. The cartel was prompted largely by the severe downturn in the economy and property market created…
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Estate agency fined £24,000 after failing to place deposits with approved schemes
Multi-branch estate agency in the Wirral admitted not following the law on deposits as well as four other offences including unfair trading.
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Legal firm reveals trail of horror left by ‘worst rogue tenant ever’
Legal4Landlords says it has helped a landlord battle a rogue tenant who took seven months to evict and still owes £6,250 in back rent.
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