Background and Overview Amendments of the Estate Agents Act 1979
21.At present membership of a redress scheme for estate agents is voluntary. The Government stated in its response to the OFT report that it hoped to amend the Housing Act during its passage to provide a power to require all estate agents to belong to a redress scheme. This proved not to be possible due to the scope of the Housing Act. Therefore the 2004 Act includes provision for the Secretary of State to make an order to require an estate agent to be a member of an approved redress scheme but only for the purposes of complaints relating to Home Information Packs. This Act gives the Secretary of State the power to require all estate agents to belong to a redress scheme for the purposes of all complaints against estate agents by buyers and sellers of residential property. This requirement will be UK wide (the 2004 Act extends only to England and Wales).
22.The OFT’s 2004 report on the estate agents market made some recommendations to improve the regulation of estate agents. The Government supported a number of these recommendations in its response. The other sections in this Act relating to estate agents implement the recommendations from the OFT report set out at points (b) to (d) above.