Sirs,
As an estate agent who has covered the Marlborough area for almost 40 years, it has come to light that some local agents have started operating what I believe could be called, sharp practice.
Before opening my own estate agency in 1998, I worked for one of the largest corporate estate agents in the country, so I know what it’s like to be a member of staff and be told by head office that you have to do something, even if you feel it isn’t quite right.
Rules and regulations in estate agency have moved with the times and one of these rules is that agents must ensure certain checks are undertaken when making a property available and when a sale has been agreed to a purchaser.
These checks are part of the anti-money laundering regulations. A quick check on the government website informs you, (as a professional estate agent), that you must see valid ID, this can be a passport or driving license and one of a list of official documents, to include a bank statement, a local authority bill, or even a telephone bill(amongst other!). Unfortunately, some estate agents, I believe, looking to enhance their revenue, are now suggesting to vendors and purchasers, that they must pay around £60 to have online anti-money laundering checks undertaken (and also what is called in the business ‘know your client’, checks). However these online checks are legally only required by solicitors acting on behalf of their client. Agents are not required to undertake these enhanced checks (unless a buyers is from abroad and or any what are called red flags are present). Indeed, a vendor or purchaser, once a property is sold, must pay for these enhanced checks to be undertaken by their solicitor, and therefore will be paying twice for the same checks.
I’ve spoken to one of the major providers of these online services, actual cost for these is around £10. Therefore, these estate agents are earning around £100 profit from every sale, a cost for a service which legally, I believe, they do not need to make. Not only is this potential sharp practice, but it is imposed upon vendors and purchases at a time of stress and therefore duress. After all if you finally found the house you want to buy and the agent tells you legally you have to have these checks done, you pay the money, for fear of losing the property.
As with all sharp practice, if you ask the company why they are doing this they dress it up in ‘Oh it has to be done legally’. What they don’t say, is it can be done with a few official pieces of paper and does not have to involve a £60 charge. Not only is this money taken under false pretences, but I think it’s also money taken effectively under threat. Both of these are, I believe, very serious, improper practice.
It’s saddens me when stories like this come to light, as it sullies the name of estate agency, a career I have been very proud of all my life and try to defend when anybody says something negative.
I hope that Marlborough’s residents who are in or about to embark on a property transaction realise that they, I believe, shouldn’t need to lose £60 every time they put a house on the market or want to buy a property, to estate agents who I believe, legally should not be charging it .
I have contacted trading standards to see what their thoughts on this matter are.
Yours,
Jonathan Conning
By George
Marlborough
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