After a hard day at the coalface, I like to spend twenty minutes watching the evening news. Well, you can’t be happy all the time, can you? So, I need a TV licence. Fair enough. The ‘Senior Stakeholder Journey Mapping Architect’ at the BBC needs their salary to be paid from somewhere.
Having become thoroughly glum at the state of the world, I might decide to take up eel fishing as a little mindful relaxation. But in order to do so, I need a licence. OK, sticking with a rural theme, I could learn to herd pigs. The fresh country air, snuffling snouts and a bad joke about bringing home the bacon. No, don’t tell me. I would need a licence.
I would also need a licence to tattoo people, train a racehorse or play background music in a restaurant. It seems, as a nation, we are somewhat licence happy. With one glaring exception involving the largest single purchase most of us will make in our lifetime: buying a house.
Each year, close to a million dwellings change hands, with a total value in the hundreds of billions of pounds. And a licence is still not required for the agency administering these transactions. It would appear pigs and eels have more protection.
This is not to say the estate agency sector is the Wild West. The vast majority of agencies self-regulate by joining a professional association, in our case, Propertymark. This provides guides, templates and documents to help us comply with current legislation. It requires that our staff hold relevant qualifications and undertake continuous professional development.
We do this because we aim to offer the best professional service to home buyers and home vendors, which is a no-brainer for business success. But it is still our choice to do so. If we had a different business model, we could simply save ourselves the aggravation and make it up as we go along.
Which is precisely what a small minority of agents are still doing. In the words of pioneering computer scientist Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, “the most dangerous phrase in the language is ‘We’ve always done it this way’”. Yet there is nothing to stop an estate agent operating on rules they invented in the Dark Ages. Or a week last Thursday.
Existing law is still the Estate Agents Act 1979. Yes, the primary legislation in place to protect the biggest financial commitment for most people was written when Gloria Gaynor announced “I Will Survive”. If my limited experience of karaoke is anything to go by, Gloria is having more of an impact on our wellbeing than this fairly toothless act.
For years, there have been proposals to introduce proper regulation of property agents. The broad aim is hardly revolutionary: agents should be suitably qualified, properly supervised and bound by consistent professional standards. Consumers should be able to identify a competent agent, understand who regulates them and have access to meaningful redress when things go wrong.
The proposed Regulation of Property Agents framework would move the sector towards a system of mandatory qualifications, a statutory code of practice and an independent regulator with real enforcement powers. It would not make every transaction painless, nor stop every difficult buyer, seller or chain collapsing at the worst possible moment. But it would make it harder for the least professional operators to trade on poor practice, weak knowledge and the hope that nobody complains loudly enough.
At present, however, England still relies heavily on a mixture of older legislation, consumer-protection rules, redress schemes and voluntary professional membership. Good agents invest in training, compliance and proper systems because it is the right thing to do and because it makes commercial sense. Less conscientious agents can often do considerably less.
The estate agency sector is still in need of meaningful regulation to remove the worst elements from the mix and level the playing field for those who already invest in doing things properly. With our associates at Propertymark, we will continue to lobby for mandatory qualifications, enforceable standards and a coherent regulatory framework.
Meanwhile, my advice to buyers and vendors is twofold. Pick an agency that is a member of a professional association. And don’t herd pigs on your way to the eel fishing. They can nick you for it!