Mon 16 Jun 2008
Estate agents should ‘indeed’ be regulated
Many have welcomed a new report that suggests that estate, letting and managing agents should be formally regulated.The author of the report, which contains 30 recommendations to improve the way the residential property market works, Sir Bryan Carsberg, said regulation would offer customers better security, as anyone can currently set-up an estate agency without the need to obtain a qualification.
Peter Bolton King (pictured), chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), welcomed the recommendations: “One or two bad apples can still affect the whole barrel and therefore Sir Brian’s recommendation that all agents practicing in the UK should be registered by an official body and regulated by an independent standards board is one we wholeheartedly endorse. The NAEA and RICS are already working closely together to set up an independent standards board but it still remains voluntary for estate agents to be part of a regulatory body. The many recommendations put forward in Sir Bryan’s review on how to legislate the property industry as a more cohesive entity are a great starting point on what will no doubt be a lengthy consultation period on how best to look at reforming this area.”
British Property Federation’s (BPF) chief executive, Liz Peace, also agrees that greater regulatory measures are required, to monitor letting agents as well as estate agents.
Peace told the Today Programme: “More than £12bn passes through letting agents in an area which is largely unregulated or, at best, fragmented and partly regulated through various confusing schemes. You don’t know where you are.
“What the BPF would like is a single, simple code for letting agents so you can smooth out the process. If we cannot get that we’re not going to be able to build up the reputation of the professional rented sector and we’re not going to see the growth of investment in that area we desperately need.”
Posted by Marc Da-Silva
in British Property Federation, Liz Peace, National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), News, Peter Bolton King, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Sir Bryan Carsberg on Mon 16 Jun 2008
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