On November 30th last year, the National Trading Standards Estate and Lettings Agency (NTSELAT) Team published their updated guidance on the Consumer Protection Regulation as it applies to our industry.
For several years, agents in England and Wales have been required to disclose any information that might be relevant to a property purchaser in making a decision. However, the rules lacked clarity regarding the specific details to be gathered and when they should be published. NTSELAT, led by James Munro, set out to provide clear guidelines on the information that agents must collect and include in as they list a property.
The information needed for ‘Parts B & C’ of the requirements covered property type, construction, room numbers, parking, and utilities, and more complex information including construction risk, rights and restrictions, flood vulnerability, planning consents, and accessibility.
While gathering and inputting this information presents agents with some challenges, the decision driven by NTS was to provide more relevant insights to inform major purchase decisions with the view that more upfront information has the potential to improve customer experiences and, to reduce fall-throughs and accelerate transactions.
With Rightmove’s recent announcement that they’ll be rolling fields covering Parts B and C on all listing pages in the coming weeks, this means two things. Firstly, it’s really easy for anyone, including NTS, to have a window into whether an agent is compliant with the regulations. Secondly, Material information isn’t going away. Rightmove is clearly demonstrating a collaborative effort with NTSELAT to drive industry-wide adoption.
Rightmove and potentially other portals may initially allow listings to go live with missing elements marked as ‘Ask agent’ and right now, it’s unclear whether this will be a long term solution or whether they’ll actually take a position in the future to not allow non-compliant listings to be published.
As set out in the Rightmove announcement, the buck doesn’t stop with portals, it stop with agents. Non-compliance can result in significant fines and even a prison sentence.
Compliance just got more serious – and very public.
Gemma Young is CEO of Moverly, the material and upfront information technology platform
No longer involved in sales, so this is a question.
Is this the law or guidance? If it isn’t the law but Trading Standards interpretation, then at some point this should be tested and a judge will be the final decision maker. Reading standards should pay for both sides of the case in order that it can be tested fully by the court.
I don’t like fundamental changes in regulation coming in without proper over sight by the government. Smacks of empire building, but happy to be corrected if I am wrong.
I also note this article is written by a provider of this information. I am sure this service is extremely useful to agents, but it strikes me as an advertorial rather than a piece of journalism.
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The law is laid out in the CPRs and what NTSEAT has published (Parts A, B & C) is just NTSEATS guidance on what they consider to be material information, which should be on all adverts. I don’t believe NTSEAT has any power to fine or penalise agents who do not follow their guidance, so they would need to drag an agent to court and prove a complainant suffered as a result of (for example) not being given, or given the wrong council tax band for the property.
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I should have added the CPRs have been in force since 2008! Anyone know how many complaints or court cases there have been in the past 16 years because buyers were not aware of the council tax band of a property, or because the advert said POA (price on application)?
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Agents can be prosecuted by Trading Standards for not displaying Material Information, this is a legal requirement since 2008. In November they gave guidance on this. Most agents are burying their heads in the sand and doing nothing. These agents will be the first to be made example of. You don’t need to wait for your CRM or portals, just include it in your online property details.
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Trading Standards are unlikely to take action until they have received a consumer complaint. We are only too conscious, as buying agents, of that a number of firms still quoting ‘Price on Application’ some two years after this was outlawed under Part A! There are also at least five firms in the area who don’t give the address of the property….. Mind you, we can’t find reference to ‘address’ in the regulations – maybe it’s not material….!
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