The Intermediary – August 2025 - Flipbook - Page 41
Similarly, Emerson says that “good estate
agency, just like good financial advising, can
absolutely change people's lives for the better.
You never hear when it goes right, you only ever
hear when it goes wrong.”
In his experience, the deciding factor is “the
PREPARING CLIENTS
FOR CONDITIONAL
SELLING:
communication cycle” – ensuring fluid contact
between agents, brokers and solicitors, so that
clients feel supported rather than left in the dark.
He adds: “There are so many transactions
where good financial advisers and good estate
agents work together to get the person from A to
B. When that works, it works brilliantly.”
Frameworks for reform
Recent events may have reignited calls for reform,
but it is worth noting that the estate agency
sector is not without oversight. The Estate Agents
Act 1979 sets out legal duties, including the
requirement to pass on all offers promptly and
in writing, while bodies such as The Property
Ombudsman (TPO) enforce a Code of Practice
covering everything from marketing to the
disclosure of referral fees.
A TPO spokesperson explains that “under the
Code of Practice, estate agents must disclose in
writing any financial benefit they may receive
from a referral, including referral fees, at the
earliest opportunity.”
Nevertheless, unlike the financial services
sector, which is governed by a statutory regulator
in the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), estate
agency has no official regulator with equivalent
powers to license, monitor, and sanction
practitioners. Oversight is instead pieced together
from ombudsman schemes, trading standards
teams, and voluntary memberships.
Professional qualifications are one way of
raising the bar – but as of now, they remain
optional. Industry bodies like Propertymark have
developed their own benchmarks, and the longdiscussed Regulation of Property Agents (RoPA)
proposals hint at a single, formalised framework
in the future.
Davies notes: “The Propertymark Level
3 qualification teaches agents new and old
everything they need to know to do the job
correctly and to put the client first.”
Franks adds: “I was part of the National
Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) for a little
while because I wanted to make sure that I had
the highest level of education I could have in the
sector I was working in.”
Both note that the technical knowledge and
ethical grounding such training provides is
invaluable, but without making it mandatory,
there will always be those in the profession who
bypass it.
p
◆ Educate early: Brief clients from
the outset on the tactics they
might encounter.
◆ Clarify their rights: Make
sure they know they are free
to choose their own mortgage
adviser, and that pressuring
them to use in-house services
is unlawful.
◆ Encourage direct questions:
Tell them to ask outright if an
offer depends on them using
certain services.
◆ Highlight red flags: Warn about
delayed offers, insistence on
in-house brokers, or hints that
an external adviser could harm
their chances.
◆ Reinforce their choice: Assure
them it is fine to pick any
broker, but if they want to stay
with you, they should stand
firm and get any unusual
requests in writing.
◆ Provide tools: Give letter
templates for challenging or
reporting conditional selling.
◆ Document everything: Keep a
paper trail of all interactions
and report issues promptly.
