Estate Agents Act and Consumer Protection: What Agents Are Legally Required to Do

The Legal Framework Governing Estate Agents

Estate agents in the UK operate under a layered framework of law and regulation. Understanding what agents are legally required to do — rather than what they simply promise — helps you identify when your rights have been breached and what remedies are available.

The key pieces of legislation are:

• Estate Agents Act 1979 (EAA) — the core statute governing estate agents in England, Wales, and Scotland
• Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs) — applies to all traders dealing with consumers, including estate agents
• Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007 (CEAR Act) — requires scheme membership and sets information disclosure obligations
• The Money Laundering Regulations 2017 — require agents to carry out identity verification on clients

The Estate Agents Act 1979: Key Obligations

1. Disclosure of Personal Interest

If an estate agent (or a connected person, such as a family member or business partner) has a personal interest in a property being sold, they must disclose this in writing to all parties before any offer is made or accepted. This includes situations where the agent is themselves buying the property.

Failure to disclose is a criminal offence.

2. Prompt Disclosure of Offers

Estate agents must pass on all written offers to the seller promptly — even if the offer seems too low, comes from someone the agent dislikes, or arrives after an offer has already been accepted. Agents cannot decide on the seller's behalf which offers to share.

Selective disclosure of offers is one of the most common grounds for complaints to TPO and PRS.

3. Clients' Money Handling

Agents who hold clients' money (deposits, holding fees) must keep it in a separate client account and carry proper indemnity insurance. They must also belong to a client money protection (CMP) scheme — mandatory in England since 2019.

4. Prohibited Fees

The Tenant Fees Act 2019 bans most fees charged to tenants in the private rented sector. Any banned fee must be repaid. Agents who charge banned fees can be fined up to £30,000 by local councils.

Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008

The CPRs are broader than the EAA and apply to all commercial dealings between agents and consumers (buyers, sellers, landlords, and tenants). They prohibit:

Misleading Actions

Providing false or misleading information about a property, including:

• Incorrect floor area figures
• False descriptions of location or facilities
• Misleading photographs (e.g. wide-angle shots that exaggerate room sizes without disclosure)
• Incorrect council tax band or EPC rating

Misleading Omissions

Failing to disclose material information that would affect a consumer's decision. Recent National Trading Standards guidance (the "Buyer/Seller Disclosure" rules, effective 2022) sets out minimum information that must be disclosed:

• Part A (must be disclosed before marketing): council tax band, property tenure, EPC rating
• Part B (must be disclosed as soon as reasonably practicable): utilities, parking, flood risk, building safety issues

Agents who fail to disclose Part A or B information are in breach of the CPRs.

Aggressive Practices

Pressuring buyers to use the agent's in-house mortgage broker or conveyancer as a condition of having an offer accepted is a potentially aggressive commercial practice under the CPRs and may also breach OFT guidance.

The CEAR Act 2007: Information Requirements

When first instructed, an agent must give the seller written information about:

• Their fees (sole agency, multi-agency, sole selling rights)
• What happens if the seller uses another agent while paying sole selling rights fees
• Their redress scheme membership

Failure to provide this information correctly can make an agency agreement unenforceable — meaning the agent may not be able to claim their commission.

Enforcement

The CPRs are enforced by Trading Standards authorities at local council level. You can report breaches to the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team (NTSELAT) or your local council. Successful enforcement can result in fines, prohibition orders (banning an agent from acting as an estate agent), and in serious cases, criminal prosecution.

The EAA is enforced by local Trading Standards who can issue prohibition orders against individuals. These orders are maintained on a public register.

Using Property Passport UK as Evidence

If an agent made a misrepresentation about a property (for example, an EPC rating or floor area figure that turned out to be incorrect), having access to the original listing data — stored or captured via Property Passport UK — can help you establish the original claim and compare it with accurate information subsequently obtained.