Estate agents must be held to same high standards as conveyancers or reforms will fail, warns CLC

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has backed plans to regulate estate agents as part of major reforms to the home buying and selling process.

The specialist regulator said failure to do so risks undermining the reforms, which the government has proposed in a bid to improve the current system where £400 million per year is spent by buyers and sellers in wasted costs and one in three transactions fall through.

All key players within the conveyancing process must “have clear accountabilities and responsibilities, adhere to comparable ethical and professional standards, and be subject to comparable regulatory oversight,” it added.

The CLC was responding to the recent government consultations on home buying and selling reform and material information in property listings, which closed on 29 December.

It said providing material information upfront was “of fundamental importance to establishing a faster, smoother, more secure process that delivers greater confidence in the outcome”. It also supported the mandatory introduction of digital property logbooks, subject to certain criteria including that they were standardised, and the use of binding agreements if they allowed for fair withdrawal.

However, it disagreed with the proposed ‘charter’ to help consumers identify quality property professional services, arguing that there were already other, similar schemes in existence.

Whilst collaboration with stakeholders, such as the Home Buying and Selling Council (HBSC) and Digital Property Market Steering Group (DPMSG), was key to successfully delivering the reforms, the CLC also warned that government support would be vital.

“We regret that although the professions involved have it within their power to make the changes needed in the consumer and wider public interest, it might be necessary for government or regulators to require certain changes to ensure progress is made,” it said.

“The current fall-through rate of 30% simply must be reduced,” said Stephen Ward, CLC director of strategy and external relations (pictured).

“Consumers need certainty much earlier in the process that their sale or purchase will complete, something which the CLC has been working with the HBSC and DPMSG to deliver.

“We welcome the government’s support for the agenda for transformation of home buying and selling and hope our collaborative efforts can make our vision a reality, raising standards so that consumers’ interests are protected at all stages of the home buying and selling process.”