After more than five years of Tory inaction, Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook said he would deliver on his pre-election promise to introduce regulation of estate agents.
During a question and answer session on housing in the House of Commons, Mr Pennycook said: “The Government is committed to ensuring that people living in the leasehold and leasehold sector are protected from abuse and poor service by unscrupulous estate agents. 
“The Government will issue a position on the regulation of lettings, management and estate agents in due course.”
Propertymark welcomed the move, with Chief Executive Officer Nathan Emerson commenting: “Many renters will not be aware that there are currently no qualifications or licensing requirements for estate agents and letting agents to run or open their own businesses in the UK. “and is in a state of being illegal.''
“More than 64% of UK landlords use rental and management services to rent their properties, so we need to professionalize the industry, root out bad practices, increase transparency and give consumers control over their properties. It’s important to put regulations in place to give people more control.”
There are currently no details on what exactly the regulations will look like, but as reported in The Neg, the regulations will be part of Lord Best's 2019 Regulation of Estate Agents: Working Group Report (RoPA) may be based on.
Its key proposals include introducing licensing, qualifications and regulatory authorities into the sector. Online registration of authorized agents allows customers to check whether a company is trading legally.
Read the full RoPA report.
