By Elliot Wright, 18th February 2010
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is not doing enough to protect
homebuyers and sellers from dodgy estate agents, says the UK's
leading estate agent association.
The OFT's Home Buying and Selling Report, published today, shows
that consumer satisfaction with estate agents is at very high
levels despite the current turbulence seen in the home buying
market.
But the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), which
represents 10,000 estate agency personnel in the UK, has accused
the OFT of failing to recognise the need for better consumer
protection in the sector.
The group is concerned that consumers looking to buy or sell
homes are exposed to estate agents who lack the standards and
obligation to ensure consumers are being dealt with fairly when
committing to such a vital and huge financial decision.
Chief executive of the NAEA, Peter Bolton King said: ""We are
very happy that the OFT's study has shown the very high levels of
consumer satisfaction with estate agents.
"However, once again the OFT has categorically failed to see
that better regulation of the home buying and selling market is
required. 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 OFT has categorically failed to see
that better regulation of the home buying and selling market is
required.
"The NAEA would like to see a greater level of regulation to
ensure that professional, qualified estate agents are not confused
with agents that, all too often, fail to meet the basic
professional standards we would expect from our members.
"The need for consumer protection in the form of a more
professional industry is the driving force behind our plans to
introducing a licensing scheme for our members later this
year."
The NAEA also highlighted the stark contrast between the views
of the OFT and the Department for Communities and Local Government,
the latter of which is proceeding with full regulation of lettings
agents.
The group accused the regulators of "inconsistency" given that
the same agents and firms often deal with both sales and
lettings.
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