Regulation & Law
News articles looking at national legislation and local regulation and the application of law to the residential property industry.
-
Trading Standards warns online agents not to make unsubstantiated claims
The National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team (NTSEAT) has waded into the debate about the ‘fees saved’ advertising claims made by many online-only estate agents. NTSEAT says it wants to remind online agents not to make unsubstantiated and inaccurate claims about their selling fees when compared to traditional high street agents. The warning comes after last week’s ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), in which it upheld a complaint about Purplebricks’ website. This was prompted by a complaint from a West Sussex agent about nine ‘fees saved’ client case studies featured on the Purplebricks website in which, Arun Estates highlighted, did not accurately reflect the different service levels offered by traditional and online agents. “These businesses should ensure that they are making comparisons against like-for-like services,” says James Munro, Head of the NTSEAT (pictured, left). “It is wrong to make general claims about savings when the headline price does not include facilities such as a sales board, floor plans, photographs, accompanied viewings, sales progression or other facilities which are normally included with traditional high street firms. “We recognise that online-only agents have a role in the marketplace for customers who wish to do more of the work themselves but…
Read More » -
Two more councils clamp down on rogue landlords and agents
Two new schemes have been announced by two local councils to clamp down on rogue landlords and agents, joining a further half a dozen or more initiatives launched so far this year. Luton Borough Council and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets have both introduced different schemes with varying levels of enforcement. Luton has begun consultation on a selective landlord licensing scheme, while Tower Hamlets has launched a ‘private renters’ charter’ in addition to its existing licensing scheme. Luton wants to introduce licensing in five key wards of the town’s 19 wards. The scheme would see landlords required to apply for a license to operate each of their properties within these areas. Landlords are to be charged £110 per property, plus £110 per bedroom for a five-year licence. “The aim is to improve the overall quality of private housing provision and ensure that parts of the town that are currently blighted by poor quality accommodation and issues that often go hand in hand, are eradicated and improve the quality of life for all,” council Tom Shaw (pictured, left) told Bedfordshire on Sunday. The council says it want to introduced the scheme to stamp out ‘speculative landlords’ who offer over-crowded and…
Read More » -
OnTheMarket tribunal judgement is a “Pyrrhic victory” says city analyst
Leading City analyst Jefferies has called yesterday’s Competition Appeal Tribunal judgement in favour of OnTheMarket a “Pyrrhic victory”, suggesting it thinks the downsides of the judgement are as great as its positives. The comments came as the analyst looked at the implications of the ruling, which rejected Gascoigne Halman’s claim that its contract with OnTheMarket was anti-competitive and therefore void, and clearing the way for OnTheMarket to take on the incumbent portals and in particular, Zoopla. Jefferies says that, although it is surprised by the ruling, after reading the lengthy document the logic is easy to understand, but that it doesn’t change its positive attitude to ZPG. The main threats to ZPG, it says, are other factors such as a potential looming economic downturn culling agent branch numbers and the challenges of integrating its recent acquisitions into the ZPG family. not anti-competitive Jefferies says OnTheMarket’s ‘one other portal’ rule is not anti-competitive because agents joined the portal of their own free will, and that now the court case is over Rightmove and Zoopla will have to “sharpen their pencils” to be the ‘one other portal’. “The Competition Appeal Tribunal did agree with the premise that advertising on portals was an…
Read More » -
OnTheMarket wins claim against Gascoigne Halman in long-awaited tribunal decision
OnTheMarket has won the Competition Appeal Tribunal case it brought against Gascoigne Halman after the agent, following its acquisition in October 2015 by Connells, refused to abide by OnTheMarket’s ‘one other portal rule’. After the ruling OnTheMarket Chief Executive Ian Springett (pictured, below) accused Zoopla of funding the action, and also said that he intended to recoup legal and other court costs from Gascoigne Halman, particularly so because “the manner in which our opponents conducted the case has caused us to divert considerable resources and management time”. Gascoigne Halman said during the hearings that its contract with OnTheMarket was in effect void because what it believed are restrictive clauses within it were in breach of Section 2 of the Competition Act 1988. These include the ‘one other portal rule’ which requires participating agents to only use two property portals, the ‘bricks and mortar rule’ prohibiting online agents from joining OnTheMarket, and the ‘exclusive promotion rule’ that prevents agents from promoting their membership of Rightmove or Zoopla. The legal process was triggered when Gascoigne Halman listed its properties on all three property portals in defiance of OnTheMarket. OnThemarket subsequently sought a judgement on the matter through the tribunal system to prove…
Read More » -
Exeter agent cautioned by watchdog over use of portal comparison ad
A magazine advert run in a regional magazine by two-branch Exeter agent Wilkinson Grant has been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority by local rival SaleBoards. The advertisement highlighted how Wilkinson Grant lists its properties on “all the leading property websites” including Rightmove and Zoopla but not OnTheMarket.com,. It also claimed that – through the use of photography – vendors listing with it would receive eight times more people looking at the properties online than with rivals. The ad’s headline said “Would you rather your property is seen by this many people OR this many people?”. More buyers The ad went on to say: “Undoubtedly, Rightmove is the most powerful online property portal, but there are other platforms out there capable of putting your property in front of even more buyers. “A vast number of estate agents choose to market property on Rightmove and via the lesser known property portal OnTheMarket, which we think is bad news for vendors as they will be at a tremendous disadvantage if their property is not listed on Zoopla, the second most visited property portal in the UK and Primelocation … We advertise properties on ALL leading online property sites”. Challenge SaleBoards, which like…
Read More » -
Estate agents must do more to stop mortgage fraud, warns senior legal expert
Estate agents need to do more to prevent mortgage fraud by being more aware of the riskiest properties and transactions, and having a better understanding of the anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, leading property lawyer Peter Rodd has told The Negotiator. Peter, who is a Council member of The Law Society and works for Kent legal firm Boys & Maughan, says too few agents fully understand their anti-money laundering (AML) obligations and that if they did, being one of the best-placed stakeholders in the conveyancing process, this in turn would help reduced the number of mortgage fraud cases. “If estate agents were more aware of what signifies a high-risk transaction – i.e. high value, unencumbered, empty or tenanted properties particularly where the seller is looking for a quick sale and prepared to accept a discounted price for the property, then we might be in a better place,” says Peter. “Good knowledge of the AML regulations plays a part in preventing fraud, so estate agencies ought to be trying to do their basic AML checks properly, or some extra ones, and although it’s not going to be a foolproof solution, if the various stakeholders work together better to share information then it…
Read More » -
Councils contributing to homelessness
"Councils are contributing to homelessness. Unfair? Sadly not, says Adam Walker, as they only take responsibility for a tenant once he’s out on the street."
Read More » -
“Switching utility providers without the tenant’s agreement can trigger a major storm”, says Katrine Sporle, The Property Ombudsman.
Switching utility providers without the tenant’s agreement can trigger a major storm, says Katrine Sporle, The Property Ombudsman.
Read More » -
Hamilton Fraser buys Paul Shamplina’s Landlord Action
TV star Paul Shamplina’s tenant eviction solicitor firm Landlord Action has been bought by a subsidiary of Hamilton Fraser, the Hertfordshire-based landlord insurance group. The Landlord Action legal team, along with Paul, will relocate from their current offices in Edgware to Hamilton Fraser’s HQ in Borehamwood. Paul started up Landlord Action in 1999 as the UK’s first fixed-fee tenant eviction firm and so far has processed some 35,000 tenant cases. The award-winning company, which played a role in persuading the government to make some forms of squatting a criminal office in 2012, gained Solicitors Regulation Authority status four years ago. The acquisition makes Hamilton Fraser unusual in the property industry, mainly because it now has so many fingers in the property pie. This includes offering landlord insurance as well as professional indemnity insurance to landlords and agents. It also operates one of the three government-approved deposit protection schemes, called mydeposits. Hamilton Fraser also operates Client Money Protect while its subsidiary HF Resolution, which it has used to buy Landlord Action, operates one of the industry’s redress schemes, PRS. Nightmare tenants Paul has been a busy recently. As well as being a brand ambassador for Hamilton Fraser and running Landlord Action,…
Read More » -
Fees ban consultation was just “tick box exercise” says ARLA
The Queen’s Speech today contained a promise to introduce a letting fees ban for both agents and landlords and “promote fairness and transparency in the housing market”. But in a surprise move, the government also revealed that it is to cap deposits at one week’s rent, rather than the six weeks’ rent that is most common within the sector at the moment. But the measures announced in the Queen’s Speech have been criticised by ARLA Propertymark, which describes them as “disappointing”. “It’s unlikely the Government had enough time to analyse all of the responses from the consultation, as it only closed 12 working days ago, on the 2nd June,” says David Cox, its Chief Executive (pictured, left). “It appears they had already made their decision and therefore the consultation was no more than a ‘tick box’ exercise and they haven’t appropriately taken the industry’s views into account. “A ban on letting agent fees will cost the sector jobs, make buy-to-let investment even less attractive, and ultimately result in the costs being passed on to tenants.” David also believes that, given the amount of work letting agents put into preparing tenancies and managing properties, it is “only right and proportionate that…
Read More »
