Solicitors ‘declare war’ on estate agents

Solicitors have declared war on estate agents, according to Times Online, calling for ‘a licensing system to bring them under strict regulation’.

The Law Society of England and Wales is also appealing to the Office of Fair Trading for ‘greater transparency over what they call excessive fees’, where estate agents’ fees for a house sale dwarf those of solicitors’, whilst it undertakes a review of the housebuying market.

Paul Marsh, the Law Society president, told The Times: ‘I understand that they operate in a feast-or-famine business and have to set aside funds for the lean times. But after years of a bull run, their earnings have been quite disproportionate to the cost of everything else in society, whether a loaf of bread, cars or holiday.’

Despite the reputation often bestowed upon solicitors, they come under far stricter controls than estate agents, and, according to Times Online, the ‘Solicitors Regulation Authority has powers not enjoyed by an equivalent body’.

However, despite the battle seemingly being ready to be fought, it will be largely one-sided. The chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents and Association of Residential Letting Agents, Peter Bolton King, endorses much of what has been said.

‘Like solicitors we welcome the review by the OFT,’ he said. ‘We have been calling for years for regulation or licensing of estate agents and are fed up waiting for ministers to do something.’ Therefore, from May, the association will have its own licensing scheme, with agents signing up having ‘to comply with the rules and codes of conduct’.

That is all well and good, but what of the claims of the ‘excessive’ fees charged by estate agents? ‘The last time the OFT looked at our fees in 2004, it did not find that the fees were too high’.

In other words, perhaps unsurprisingly, Bolton King and his 14,000 estate agents do not believe that their fees are excessive.