Revealed: how much rogue estate agents are damaging the industry

The extent to which rogue estate agents are damaging the industry’s reputation has been laid bare today by new research. The problems are most acute in the private rental sector,but affect all of it. For example, 41% of tenants who used an ‘approved’ letting agent signed up to a professional body said problems with their property were fixed within a week, but only 25% of those used an ‘unapproved’ agent received the same service. The research, which covers transactions over the past five years and was completed by Propertymark, highlights the most common problems tenants encounter including poor property management, the slow replacement of faulty furnishings and white goods, and a reluctance to return deposits fast enough. Propertymark’s research also highlights a key challenge faced by the industry as a whole. Rogue estate agents Over a third of buyers and sellers, and 42% of renters don’t bother to check if the agent they are using has signed up to the key regulatory bodies or is a member of a professional organisation – leaving the door open for rogue estate agents. This is creating significant problems for the industry’s reputation, the research shows. Over half of all the buyers, vendors and…