Close to 200 estate agencies have been included in the latest list of businesses who have breached money laundering regulations.
HMRC has issued 336 penalties with a total value of more than £3.2m.
They include 194 estate agents to the total value of £1,090,610, along with 91 account service providers to the total value of £536,416.
The majority of the fines (303) in the latest publication are for trading while unregistered.
An HMRC spokesperson said: “We are committed to supporting businesses to protect themselves from criminal who prey on their services. That includes taking action against the minority who fail to fulfil their legal obligations under the Money Laundering Regulations.”
HMRC, one of 25 Anti-Money Laundering (AML) supervisors in the UK, says it was unable to provide details on specific cases.
I wonder how many people were actually arrested for money laundering? Seems like money for old rope chasing inefficiencies in estate agency rather than chasing the offenders. Is it taxation in another form? Why has our industry been lumbered with this responsibility?
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Money for old rope – HMRC raking in tax disguised as fines. Ironic, really, when agents do the same work as solicitors, yet how often are solicitors fined for their inefficiencies?
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Couldn’t agree more!
This is what it has become… government and private agencies (ie parking fines) fining the public unfairly at every given opportunity – but the government won’t do anything about it because it helps bail out the sinking ship. It’s a disgrace.
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Agents do the same job as solicitors?? Goodness me.
Sometimes people who do not have a clue what they are talking about should remain silent on the subject. To not do so, puts you at risk of making a fool of yourself.
Solicitors unlike estate agents have a proper regulator who can now dish out AML fines on behalf of the government and are doing so all across the UK. £500,000 in the last 3 months. Estate agents are being fined for not even being aware that they have to register for AML! Solicitors are being fined even though they have company wide risk assessment and policies in place and are fully practicing them but on inspection of archiving they were not in 2017.
Solicitors have to have PII in place every year on average 60- 80k per firm especially if conveyancing heavy. Clients can sue the solicitor for any mistakes or negligence for 6 years after the event. Can they sue an agent? Only for gross misrepresentation in writitng.
So when the agents are harrassing the solicitor and not allowing them to do the job they are not risking anything but woe betide a solicitor who takes a couple of days to read through the papaerwork they waited 3 weeks for from the agents panel lawyer!
Oh and one other small thing, the solicitors have to understand all of the legalities of a property and ensure all building regs and planning are in order such as overage and adopted roads. All solicitors have had to study to degree level and took over 6 years to qualify to be allowed to practice under their regulator. They also have to take update exams yearly to hold CQS and the like. Along with being certificated every year by the regulator so they can continue to practice.
When I last looked estate agents did not require a single qualification. Not even a GCSE! Estate agents get paid far more than the solicitor but thats not enough, they want a bung too, to not only refer work to a solicitor but to also bad mouth a solicitor who prefers not to bung the agent cash and just continue under the premise that if they do a great job, (or “picky” acording to the agents trying to promote their own “preferred” soilictor (the one giving them the bung or shall we be open here “BRIBE”) that they do not need a referral from anyone. The good ones just don’t need any agent referals.
What I do know is I have far more trust in my “Picky” solicitor when looking after my lease purchase in Brighton than I would ever have in any agent.
So next time you think you do the same job, just quietly go about sticking your sign in the ground, taking your pictures and showing people round. After all that is all you are qualified to do.
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Wow, get off your soapbox – you’ll sound quieter from down there. My comment was clearly about agents doing the same job as solicitors when it comes to AML checks, not suddenly donning a wig and robe. But thanks for the full TED Talk on the glory of solicitors – I’ll be sure to clap next time.
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