NAEA supports Halifax call for licensing

The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) has welcomed a call by Halifax Estate Agents (HEA) to introduce licensing for estate agents in the UK.

The call comes in advance of a House of Lords report on the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill, which aims to tackle the issue of compensation for consumers. HEA has mirrored the NAEA’s own response to the Bill: that it could in fact go further to benefit consumers and estate agents by addressing the issue of industry regulation.

Peter Bolton King, Chief Executive at the NAEA, comments: “We have been calling for the government to introduce better regulation of estate agency through licensing for some time now and are delighted that Halifax Estate Agents has come out in support of this view.

“We would stress, however, that we are calling for licensing with a little ‘l’. We believe there is no need for the government to implement complicated and costly new legislation that will only serve to increase the burden of red tape.

Regulation need not be difficult to deal with – in fact the structure is already in place within the industry. The NAEA, for example, has a technical qualification that estate agents must take in order to join and all members must abide by the Association’s rules of conduct.

“UK estate agency has for a long time been plagued by the actions of a rogue minority, with both consumers and agents suffering as a result. By insisting that estate agents must be a member of an approved professional body before they are allowed to practice, the government could easily and successfully go a long way towards tackling this important issue.”