A new Code of Practice that strengthens the transparency of the estate agent's role in the whole house buying process launches on October 1. The Code is being introduced by the Ombudsman for Estate Agents (OEA) after a regular periodic review of the previous Code. The new Code has full approval from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and means the OFT logo can be displayed alongside the familiar OEA triangle at the offices of estate agents who are members of the scheme.
One of the most important provisions of the strengthened Code is that estate agents must confirm in writing to buyers who have made an offer on a property that their offer has been passed to the seller. The previous Code already obliged the agent to pass on all offers in writing to the seller and this continues.
An agent is also now obliged to inform anyone viewing a property if an offer has already been accepted on it. By law, estate agents are required to pass on any higher offer to the seller. From now on, when an estate agent's fee is based on a percentage of the selling price, the percentage of the asking price must be expressed as an actual amount and it must be explained that if the selling price is higher or lower a corresponding change will be made to the fee.
"We have made several other detail changes to the old Code, all designed to improve the way it operates and give increased protection to consumers," said Bill McClintock, chairman of OEA Ltd, which operates the Ombudsman scheme. Periodic reviews are undertaken of the Code and we have attended to areas where it needed fine tuning in response to consumer demand. The OEA regularly surveys consumers who have used member agents to either sell or buy a house and we get regular feedback from them. In the last three years, more than 12,000 people have responded to our surveys and 85-87 per cent of them say they are satisfied with the service they receive from OEA members. Around two thirds of all the estate agency branches in England and Wales now participate in the OEA scheme - there are 7,028 branches belonging to 2,380 member firms. The OEA has discussed the Code changes with the National Association of Estate Agents and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Our objective is to have a single Code of Practice covering the whole industry so there is one set of standards with which all estate agents must comply and be measured against. We hope to achieve this in the next few months."
