Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has considered the potential merits of regulating estate agents to ensure best practise.

It is unacceptable for estate agents to withhold offers from sellers because the potential buyer declines to use their additional services. Where there is evidence of such practices, agents can face sanctions including a ban.

The government is committed to protecting people from abuse and poor service at the hands of unscrupulous property agents and to improving estate agent standards more generally.

The National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team (NTSEAT) is the lead estate agent enforcement authority. Alongside local authority Trading Standards teams, they are responsible for ensuring estate agents comply with the Estate Agents Act 1979 and other relevant legislation. NTSEAT have powers to issue warnings and banning orders against rogue agents. In cases of conditional selling, it is essential that any misconduct or manipulation in the offer process is reported to help build a clearer picture of the problem and support potential investigations.

My Department engages regularly with NTSEAT to discuss how best to address specific issues, including conditional selling, and continue to look at options to improve standards across the estate agent sector.

The previous government committed to regulate the property agent sector in 2018 and asked a working group chaired by Lord Richard Best to advise them on how best to do it. However, they failed to respond to the recommendations set out in the working group’s 2019 Regulation of Property Agents: working group report which can be found on gov.uk here. We will set out our full position on regulation of estate, letting and managing agents in due course.