Property listings portals Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket have suggested they will not take disciplinary action again estate agents who fail to comply with the material information guidance published by National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team (NTSELAT).
Estate agency publication The Negotiator has spoken to the portals who have said they will take a more ‘supportive‘ role and will not remove agents who do not comply with the guidance from their portals. Commenting on their roles in ensuring material information guidance is adhered to a Rightmove spokesperson said
“The vast majority of listings do now include information from Material Information Part A, where the guidance has been out a lot longer than Parts B & C. We are encouraging agents to include as much information from the new fields as possible, but we also understand that collecting information for the additional fields is new, and some of this information is difficult to find.”
“Agents also face the challenge that the many and varied software systems that they use also need to make the required changes to include the new fields and many haven’t yet. Right now, we’re focused on helping agents during this period of transition.”
Zoopla said it remained committed to ‘supporting and enabling agents to comply with the material information requirements.’
“This is a major change in the flow of data and information across the industry requiring high levels of investment. We want to see everyone work together to agree on a high level of compliance across the most important fields for consumers. There has been great industry progress on Part A coverage, but it has taken two years for [estate agents] to adapt and make the scale of change and new investment needed to pass this information through to listings.
“Progress on parts B&C is starting to improve as the specifications and changes were rolled out earlier this year on our platforms. As with Part A, it will take time for compliance to increase as this is a second round of change and investment needed by agents and their partners to comply following Part A. The changes were never going to materialise on day one, but they are working through [the system] and consumers are hopefully benefitting from access to more information which will continue to improve.
“In light of how these changes are going, the focus should remain on encouraging the industry to make the changes and investment needed to comply and there is much more work to do.”
OnTheMarket added
“We will continue to ensure that agents are able to specify the full set of material information defined by the NTSELAT and have this displayed on their listings at OnTheMarket, however, we will not be taking action to enforce use of these fields ourselves as we do not view it as our position to do so. Of course, we will aid the NTSELAT in any investigation around this, should they require our help. We will be following the NTSELAT closely for any updates to this guidance and will implement changes accordingly.”
All three portals have been working behind the scenes to build the additional functionality to capture material information outlined in Parts A, B and C of the NTSELAT guidance.
- Part A; includes council tax band or rate, property price or rent and tenure information (for sales).
- Part B; information that should be covered for all properties – such as the type of property, the building materials used, the number of rooms and information about utilities and parking.
- Part C; information that only needs to be established if the property is affected by the issue – such as flood risk or restrictive covenants.
But an independent review of the extent and quality of material information on portals found significant gaps. Helen Price, a Chartered Building Surveyor and PhD candidate at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, has conducted research into 118 Rightmove listings from 1st July 2024 to 9th August 2024 which identified information related to “accessibility”, Utilities, Rights and Restrictions section, data on the size of the property, and Energy Performance Certificate ratings was missing or inaccurate.
