OFT Estate Agent Public Register goes online

69/09 15 June 2009

The OFT has today launched an online version of its public register listing estate agents who have been given warnings or been banned from estate agency work.

View the Estate Agents Public Register at www.oft.gov.uk/estateagentregister

Under the Estate Agents Act 1979 the OFT can issue warning and prohibition orders against individual estate agents or agencies who have broken the law.

The register, which can be browsed alphabetically or by date, provides a crucial tool allowing consumers to search whether the OFT has taken action against estate agents. It also provides information that can be used in order to report to the OFT suspected breaches by an estate agent of an existing warning or prohibition order.

The OFT can issue warning orders or take action with a view to banning estate agents where there is evidence that they have committed certain specified offences such as:

offences involving fraud, other dishonesty or violence
discriminating on the grounds of race or gender in the course of estate agency work
engaging in residential estate agency work but failing to belong to an approved redress scheme, or
failing to comply with the requirements of the law, or
engaging in specified undesirable practices.

Mike Haley OFT Director of Consumer Protection said:

'Under the law, estate agents must ensure they act in the best interests of their clients and that both buyers and sellers are treated honestly, fairly and promptly. The online register gives consumers direct access to important information explaining where we have taken action against estate agents.'

NOTES

1. The Estate Agents Register is a publicly available register as provided for by law and the OFT is not responsible for, nor does it endorse or make any representations regarding any use made of the data on the register by third parties.

2. It is a criminal offence for any estate agent to trade when banned by the OFT.

3. Under section 6 of the Estate Agents Act 1979, anyone in respect of whom a Prohibition or Warning Order has been made 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.

4. Download the the OFT's Estate Agency guide - explaining what you need to know if you are engaged in estate agency work.

5. 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.

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