Brighton estate agent banned

107/04 8 July 2004

Brighton estate agent Allan Langley-Smith has been banned from engaging in estate agency work for life by the OFT.

Mr Langley-Smith, who traded as Hadleys Estate Agents of 31 Queens Road, Brighton, was found by an OFT adjudicator to have failed to disclose a personal interest to a client and also failed to disclose a personal interest to a prospective purchaser, thereby breaching the Estate Agents Act and related legislation.

The OFT launched an investigation into allegations that Mr Langley-Smith had breached the law following receipt of a consumer complaint from Brighton & Hove Trading Standards Department.

Christine Wade, Director of Consumer Regulation and Enforcement said:

'The OFT will act to protect consumers from estate agents who break the law.'

NOTES

1. The OFT can bar from estate agency work a person who has been convicted of 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 Act.

2. Before a Prohibition Order 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 Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

3. An adjudicator appointed by the OFT determined that Mr Langley-Smith was unfit to carry on estate agency work. A Prohibition Order was made in respect of Mr Langley-Smith on 29 June 2004. The Order shall not come into operation until any appeal under section 7(1) of the Estate Agents Act 1979, and any further appeal, has been determined, or the period in which such an appeal may be brought has expired. Mr Langley-Smith has until 28 July 2004 to lodge an appeal.

4. 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.

5. The Estate Agents Act 1979 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 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. This does not include acting as a letting agent.

6. Under the Estate Agents (Undesirable Practices) (No 2) Order 1991 (Regulation 2(a) and paragraph 2 of Schedule 1), an estate agent must disclose to his client promptly and in writing that he himself 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.

7. A public register of Prohibition Orders is kept by the OFT at the Consumer Credit Licensing Bureau, 3rd Floor, Craven House, 40 Uxbridge Road, Ealing, London, W5 2BS.

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