How To Stop Estate Agents Thieving?

[jocohen]

I remember a conversation with my son recently where he mentioned how the EA was able to suggest there was multiple bids for his flat when he was buying a couple of years ago.

I heard the story from several people and have wondered how can we stop EA creating fictitious bidders. Now credit is tight EA have less room to lie. Government gains from stamp duty and hence never wants to regulate EA's.

So shouldn't we on this website create a movement for honest sales, rewarding the few honest EA's if they exist.

Some ideas to structure regulation needed?

A campaign which may be a slow burner but may halp return the housing market to a sensible one rather then an arthur daly outfit.

[pepsi]

as below

OFT bans Croydon estate agent

46/09 27 April 2009

The OFT has issued a prohibition order banning a Croydon estate agent from estate agency work after she failed to disclose a personal interest in the sale of a property.

Marcia Whyte who ran Executive Estates, Brighton Road, South Croydon, failed to disclose to a potential vendor, promptly and in writing, that she was seeking to acquire his property. An adjudicator found she also failed to disclose her personal interest to a potential purchaser to whom she intended to re-sell the property. Had the transaction proceeded Ms Whyte stood to make a secret profit of £65,000.

In addition, the estate agent received a deposit from the potential purchaser, even though doing so is unlawful where an agent has a personal interest in the property, even when that interest has been duly disclosed.

Mike Haley, OFT Director of Consumer Protection said:

'Estate Agents must immediately disclose to prospective vendors and purchasers that they have a personal interest in the sale of a property they are marketing. This is specifically to prevent them from making a secret profit, as Marcia Whyte would have done in this case. We take seriously any complaints of an estate agent potentially misleading consumers by failing to disclose a personal interest.'

NOTES

1. The OFT can take action with a view to banning from estate agency work a person (and for the purposes of the Estate Agents Act this can also be a company or a partnership) who has committed certain specified offences such as fraud, or other dishonesty or violence, or who has committed racial or sexual discrimination in the course of estate agency work, or who has failed to comply with the requirements placed on estate agents by the Estate Agents Act 1979 and its associated regulations (the Act), or who has engaged in specified undesirable practices, if an adjudicator finds that the person in question is unfit to act as an agent.

2. The Act requires an estate agent to disclose to clients that he/ she has, or is seeking to acquire, a personal interest in the sale of a property. It also prevents an estate agent from seeking or receiving a deposit in respect of a property in which he has a personal interest. An estate agent must disclose promptly and in writing that he, or any connected person, has, or is seeking to acquire a beneficial interest in the land or in the proceeds of sale of any interest in the land. Connected persons include employers or principals.

3. Before a Prohibition Order banning an estate agent is issued, the person concerned has the right to make representations to the OFT as to why the Order should not be made. If these representations are unsuccessful, subsequent appeal can be made to the Tribunals Service, an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice, on behalf of the Secretary of State.

4. Adjudicators issue and determine Prohibition and Warning Notices under the Act. They do so on behalf of the OFT, but make individual and independent decisions based upon the contentions in a Notice, the evidence attached to a Notice and the representations of those to whom a Notice is addressed. Representations may be made in writing and at an oral hearing.

5. An adjudicator determined that Marcia Whyte had breached the Act and the Estate Agents (Undesirable Practices) (No.2) Order 1991 (the UPO) and that she was unfit to carry on estate agency work generally. A Prohibition Order was made in respect of Ms Whyte on 25 March 2009. Ms Whyte was given 28 days to appeal but has not exercised this right.

6. Under Section 9 of the Act, the OFT can require a person to provide it with information or documentation to assist in its investigations.

7. After an Order has been made, the person affected can at any time, and on payment of a fee, currently £2,500, apply to the OFT for the Order to be varied or revoked.

8. The Act covers anyone who, in the course of business, is engaged in 'estate agency work'. This means introducing to someone else a person who wishes to buy, sell or lease land or property, and/or being involved in negotiating the subsequent deal. The work must be in the course of business, whether as employer or employee, and as a result of instructions from a client. The land or property may be commercial, industrial, agricultural or residential.

(Thought this was relevant!)