A consultation on money laundering has had its deadline  extended.

The Law Commission’s consultation officially closed on October 5, but has now been extended to October 31.

A spokesperson for the Law Commission said: “We have had a high number of responses from interested parties including banks, financial organisations and academics but we want to make sure the views of estate agents are covered.

“We are allowing estate agents to respond beyond the deadline and we hope that they will take the opportunity to give us their views on our anti-money laundering proposals.”

As previously reported by EYE, individual agents failing to comply with anti-money laundering obligations are being hit with seven-figure penalties.

The Law Commission’s proposals include asking several questions where estate agents might be involved.

For example, it asks whether the business itself might be liable for failure where an individual employee fails to disclose a suspicion.

It also asks about the reporting of suspicions where it is thought that the property concerned in a transaction could be criminal property.

The Law Commission’s paper was released in July and suggests that anyone sending comments by post should also send them via email.

However, this novel suggestion does not seem to have worked.

https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/anti-money-laundering/