OFT issues warning order to Suffolk estate agents

130/05 21 July 2005

The OFT has issued a warning order to Suffolk estate agents Gobbitt & Kirby Property Services Ltd, that if they continue to engage in certain specified practices they will be banned from carrying out estate agency work. The company's managing director, Scott Matheson-Barr and its office manager, Andrew Rudd have been issued with similar warning orders. These orders will not come into effect until the end of an appeal process (see note 3).

If after a warning order has become effective, the people or business who are the subject of such an order again engage in the misconduct specified in the order, this would be treated as conclusive evidence that they were unfit to be allowed to continue in estate agency work.

Mr Rudd misrepresented the existence of an offer and failed to pass on three offers promptly and in writing, in breach of legal requirements.

The OFT launched its investigation following receipt of information from Suffolk Police Constabulary.

Ray Hall, OFT Director of Enforcement and Consumer Credit Licensing said:

'The OFT has powers to take tough action against estate agency businesses as well as individual agents and we will do so when appropriate to protect the interests of consumers.'

NOTES

1. The Estate Agents Act 1979 and related subordinate legislation covers anyone who, in the course of business, is engaged in 'estate agency work'. This means introducing and/or negotiating with people who want to buy or sell freehold or leasehold property (or their Scottish equivalents). 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.

2. The OFT can make a Warning Order if it satisfied that a person in the course of estate agency has failed to comply with a statutory obligation or has engaged in a practice which has been declared undesirable by the Secretary of State. The OFT can bar from estate agency work a person who fails to comply with the Order and/or continues these undesirable practices in future.

3. Before a Warning Order is made, 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.

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

5. An adjudicator appointed by the OFT determined that Gobbitt & Kirby Property Services Ltd, Scott Matheson-Barr and Andrew Rudd all breached the Estate Agents (Undesirable Practices)(No.2) Order 1991. Warning Orders were made in respect of Gobbitt & Kirby Property Services Ltd, Mr Matheson-Barr and Mr Rudd on 28 June 2005. The Orders shall not come into operation until any appeals under section 7(1) of the Estate Agents Act 1979, and any further appeals, have been determined, or the period in which such appeals may be brought has expired. Gobbitt & Kirby Property Services Ltd, Mr Matheson-Barr and Mr Rudd have until 27 July 2005 to lodge appeals.

6. 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.

7. Under the Estate Agents (Undesirable Practices)(No.2) Order 1991 (Article 2(c) and paragraph 1 of Schedule 3), an estate agent must not make, knowingly or recklessly, a misrepresentation – as to the existence of, or details relating to, any offer for the interest in the land; or as to the existence or status of any prospective purchaser of an interest in the land.

8. Under the Estate Agents (Undesirable Practices)(No.2) Order 1991 (paragraph 2 of Schedule 3), an estate agent must forward to his client promptly and in writing accurate details (other than those of a description which the client has indicated in writing he does not wish to receive) of any offer the estate agent has received from a prospective purchaser in respect of an interest in the land.

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

Back to: Press releases

Navigate the OFT website:

News and updates

What was new in...

Feedback

Press releases 2005 -