Background and Overview Part 3: Estate Agents
14.The work of estate agents is primarily governed by the Estate Agents Act 1979 (c.38) (the 1979 Act), the Property Misdescriptions Act 1991 (c.29), and Part 5 of the Housing Act 2004 (c.34) (the 2004 Act). All of these extend to the whole of the UK save for the 2004 Act which applies to England and Wales.
15.The system for buying and selling a property in Scotland is quite different from the rest of the UK. For example, a significant proportion of transactions make use of the sealed bid system, and houses are often sold through solicitors. These differences are accommodated by the 1979 Act. Housing in Scotland is a devolved matter, and the Scottish equivalent of the Housing Act 2004 is the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 (asp1), which contains provisions for Purchaser Information Packs (PIPs) and single surveys.
16.Section 1 of the 1979 Act provides a definition of “estate agency work” rather than defining an “estate agent”. The definition of estate agency work has been utilised for the purposes of this Act.
17.Estate agents are subject to a “negative licensing” system under the 1979 Act. This means that anyone can set up as an estate agent, but the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) can ban estate agents they consider to be unfit to practise.
18.The legislation mentioned above is enforced by the OFT and trading standards officers (TSOs) in Great Britain, and in Northern Ireland by the Northern Ireland Trading Standards Service, which is part of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment.
19.The OFT published a report on the Estate Agency Market in March 2004. The Government published its response to the report in July 2004. The measures in this Act stem from the OFT’s report and the Government’s response.
20.In summary the Act seeks to: