‘Frustrated’ Lord Best says RoPA ‘not a priority’ for Gove
Peer tells The Neg he is worried that ministers are still not treating RoPA as an urgent issue, five years after his report.
RoPA report pioneer Lord Best (main picture) has told The Neg he fears the Government still doesn’t see an industry regulator as a priority.
Nearly five years since his working group called for regulation of property agents (RoPA) there is still no sign that ministers are going to respond with any urgency.
Regulator
Now, a Lords Committee has also called for a regulator backed by a licensing scheme for agents, a single ombudsman and mandatory qualifications.
The Industry and Regulators Committee has written to Housing Secretary Michael Gove urging him ‘to get on with it’.
I suspect and fear it will not be the highest priority.”
Lord Best said: “The Government’s form is not good after saying for five years it is not the highest priority.
“I suspect and fear it will not be the highest priority. We have waited long enough.”
The Government has been sitting on its hands for four years.”
And Baroness Taylor of Bolton, Chair of the committee, added: “The Government has been sitting on its hands for four years, by not acting on the report of the working group it set up.
“In the meantime, the impact of poor regulation is being felt by tenants and leaseholders, and the sector has been left in limbo.
“During our inquiry, there was near unanimous evidence from consumers, industry and existing bodies on the need for statutory regulation of property agents and the establishment of a new regulator,” she said.
Minimal controls
In a letter to Gove the committee said: “The imbalance of power between property agents and consumers has not fundamentally changed, and there remain minimal controls on who can become a property agent, despite the considerable power they hold.
“The working group proposed that the new regulator would operate a licence for property agents, which would include checking that they have fulfilled their legal obligations and that they have passed a fit-and-proper person test.
“This would include maintaining a public record of which agents and firms are licensed.”
‘Must have teeth’
Propertymark told the Lords Committee a new regulator for property agents must have the ‘teeth’ to stop estate agencies from operating.
Timothy Douglas, Head of Policy and Campaigns at Propertymark, said there are ‘gaps’ in the current redress schemes, and any new regulatory system must be co-ordinated.
The main recommendations of the Lords Committee are:
- Legislation to establish a new regulator, or, at the very least, a full published response from the Government to the report of the Working Group that recommended establishing one
- Mandatory qualifications for property agents including dealing ethically with consumers
- Industry codes of practice operated by the new regulator, focused on achieving good outcomes for consumers
- A Memorandum of Understanding to be agreed between the new regulator, National Trading Standards and the redress schemes to ensure cooperation and avoid duplication
- The Government to legislate for statutory consumer representation in the sector to ensure their views are loud and clear
- A single ombudsman for property agents, rather than two competing schemes as currently
- The new regulator, after initial Government support, to fund its activities through fees, charges or a levy on those it regulates
The Chair of Ropa has been a parliamentarian all her life and never spent a day selling a property and Richard Best although having great insight into housing trusts and associations, again has no personal knowledge of what it is to be an agent.
Given it is now half a decade and RoPa stays firmly a pipedream, I feel it is more likely that the House of Lords needs regulation than agents who do not need another layer of red tape and no doubt an extra annual fee to pay or courses to pay for.
We live in the age of technology, software will increasingly be the guiding hand of compliance, I think it is a generational thing (Mr Best at 78 and Mrs Taylor at 76) to think that property professionals need talk and chalk, when AI is set to change the whole paradigm of work, who does it and where. ‘The Brave New World’ is upon us and is eating Dinosaurs for breakfast.
Politians and Officers love creating regulators who often exist for years do no useful work and then fade away. Where regulations are needed (and there are more than ever) they should be policed by existing courts or quangos. No more.
I think it wrong that people who have no idea what it is to be a an estate agent should decide they want to regulate them, the Chair of Ropa has been a parliamentarian all her life and never spent a day selling a property and Richard Best although having great insight into housing trusts and associations, again has no personal knowledge of what it is to be an agent.
Given it is now half a decade and RoPa stays firmly a pipedream, I feel it is more likely that the House of Lords needs regulation than agents who do not need another layer of red tape and no doubt an extra annual fee to pay or courses to pay for.
We live in the age of technology, software will increasingly be the guiding hand of compliance, I think it is a generational thing (Mr Best at 78 and Mrs Taylor at 76) to think that property professionals need talk and chalk, when AI is set to change the whole paradigm of work, who does it and where. ‘The Brave New World’ is upon us and is eating Dinosaurs for breakfast.