ROOF Blog

Estate agents are to be given a clean bill of health and escape a regulatory crackdown when a year-long investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) reports its findings later today. Despite repeated calls over a number of years by consumer bodies and even some agents’ groups, the OFT will conclude that the industry is generally working in consumers’ best interests and that a regulatory regime is not required. Over the last 12 months, the OFT has been investigating all aspects of the process of buying and selling homes in the UK, including price competition, quality of service, and whether the industry needs to be regulated. Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents, said: ‘Buying a home is often the largest single transaction of a person’s life and it is disappointing that the OFT has not thought it appropriate to acknowledge that a robust and appropriate level of consumer protection is needed.’

The recession may have severely dented the property market, but new figures show it has also prompted a surge in official complaints against those who make their living from it – estate agents, lettings companies, developers and even surveyors show big rises. The Property Ombudsman Scheme (POS) – the best-known redress system for buyers, sellers and tenants – received well over 10,000 complaints last year, with those in the lettings sector of the market alone surging by 79 per cent since late 2008.

Research by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has found that estate agents believe house prices will rise in the coming three months to counteract a drop in supply. It was the first time since May 2007 that agents predicted an increase in house prices. RICS also found signs of an increase in market activity, with the average number of sales completed by each estate agent rising to 12.7 in the three months to June, up from 11.7.

Research from the National Association of Estate Agents has revealed that nearly one in four people claim they are unable to get a mortgage due to the tighter lending criteria being used by banks and building societies. More than half of those asked believed that they would have more change of getting a mortgage if lenders had relaxed tough restrictions and accepted lower deposits.

Latest figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors show that the pace of house price decline slowed in May, while sales picked up. Around 6 per cent of estate agents said property values had risen in May, while 42 per cent said prices fell. Buyer inquiries rose for the seventh consecutive month, and at the fastest rate in a decade. The number of transactions completed in the three months to May was 11.8 up from 10.6 in April, although it remained 31 per cent lower than the same period a year earlier.

A Belfast house builder has been accused of faking a queue outside an estate agent to drum up interest in the development. A PR agency sent out a press released entitled: ‘Worth the wait’ along with photos of people sleeping and waiting in a queue outside the agents. The photos have been exposed as fake when one woman in line was recognised as a model being paid by the PR company. The developer defended the stunt saying the other people were genuine potential buyers.

The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) says that landlords need incentives to drive improvements in the private rented sector as thousands of tenants were living in homes that are sub-standard and in need of modernisation. ARLA wants the government to introduce incentives such as tax relief, to encourage landlords to improve their properties, arguing that 61 per cent of their members claimed they would upgrade their properties in some way if immediate tax relief was available.

Private tenants are routinely being ‘conned’ by letting agents imposing unjustified fees for providing a poor or nonexistent service, a report from the Citizens Advice said today. It said that it was dealing with 6,000 tenants’ complaints a year regarding letting agents, and that the behaviour of some is ‘out of control’. The report has found that 94 per cent of agents imposed up to seven additional charges on tenants, not counting the deposit and rent in advance, costing up to £600, and some agents were caught billing tenant and landlord for the same service. Citizens Advice wants the government to extend the recent regulation to include a ban on additional charges.

The price of home information packs (Hips) is being inflated by up to £150 to cover secret commission payments made to estate agents, Channel 4 News has claimed. Channel 4 said it had obtained documents showing an arrangement between a Hip provider and an estate agent where the price for one of the packs was increased to cover commission to the agent for using the company as its sole Hip provider. The Law Society has called on the government to take action, while the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is investigating.

Figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) have given hope to some that the house market may be improving. RICS found that 41 per cent more chartered surveyors reported new buyer enquiries rising rather than falling in April, up from 32 per cent in March, and the highest reading since August 1999. The pace of house price decline slowed with 59.9 per cent more estate agents reporting price falls rather than increases last month, down from 72.1 per cent in March. Agents sold on average 10.6 properties between February and April, up from 9.7 in the previous quarter. A spokesperson from RICS said however, that the market was ‘unlikely to see significant improvement while money remains in short supply…’