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A Better Deal for Home Buyers and Sellers
Posted on 02/07/2008
New rules to protect home buyers and sellers from rogue estate Agents have been welcomed by Eric Goodyer of Charnwood Labour Party. The measures were announced by the office of the Rt Hon John Hutton MP, Secretary Of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. From July 1st all residential estate agents must sign up to a redress scheme by 1st October. This is part of a package of new measures that will come into force in October 2008 that give greater powers to the Office of Fair Trading to remove rogue estate agents from the market, and increase the investigatory powers of enforcement officers.
The need for these measures arises from a study by the Office of Fair trading in 2004 which showed that 21% of sellers and 23% of buyers experience problems with estate agents. As a result all estate agents who engage in residential estate agency work will be required to join an approved redress scheme dealing with complaints from buyers and sellers of residential property. Responsibility for approving one or more redress schemes lies with the Office of Fair Trading. The first redress scheme to be approved was the application from the Ombudsman for Estate Agents. The OFT is currently considering two other applications. Details of these applications are available on the OFT web-site.
In the first instance there will be a penalty charge of £1,000 for estate agents that don’t comply with the requirement to join a redress scheme. The penalty charge is in addition to the ultimate sanction for non-membership a prohibition order banning an estate agent from carrying out estate agency work.
Eric Goodyer, Labours Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Charnwood said
“Buying a home is the biggest financial investment made by the majority of people in this country. It is essential that they are treated fairly by Estate Agents, and this reform will ensure that they have a come-back if things go wrong”