Following the launch in September by the Office of Fair Trading of their new guidance on Property Sales, we recently attended a training session with other Relocation Agent Network members to understand the major changes brought about as a result of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations and the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008.
These new regulations are a serious and comprehensive change to the way we do our Business, the old principal of Buyer Beware has gone and we now have many more new duties of care not just to the seller, but also the buyer or prospective buyer of a property, consumers can expect to get a lot more information before making a decision to buy, through far greater transparency.
The training course was run with the assistance of local Trading Standards and covered many of the new areas of regulation and the Criminal offences that can apply when a breach occurs, this includes areas such as aggressive marketing and over-valuing a property to gain business.
Course manager and estate agent of 30 years Simon Wilkinson FNAEA added
“The new regulations are great news for the consumer and a serious threat to anyone but the most professional estate agents, many I have spoken to are not even aware of their new duties and the risks on non-compliance”.
Buyers and sellers alike should ask the agent if they are complying with the new regulations and avoid them if they are not.
