Unregulated Estate Agents - Yopa in particular!

Robbo66

moneysavinghero said:

Deleted_User said:

theartfullodger said:

eddddy said:

All estate agents are regulated, ....

Eddy, in what way are lettings agents in England regulated, and with which regulator, please??

Aren't they self regulated under the ARLA scheme? 

ARLA and TPOS are optional, EA's don't have to sign up to either of those if they dont want to.

All letting agents have since October 2014 been required by law to belong to one of the 3 redress schemes

I would say that it is the same for estate agents, ARLA and NAEA are optional and neither scheme has any real teeth. EA/LA registration and training is coming, this has been delayed due to the current situation in the world but it is coming, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulation-of-property-agents-working-group-report

Redpath22

Thank you all for your very kind and helpful comments.  I thought I would update you: 

We won the argument eventually and Yopa have agreed not to charge us anything.  We achieved this by speaking to the Ombudsman who told us that estate agents are classed as supplying a ‘unique’ service to clients and so are not regulated by the The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 and therefore are not subjected to the 14 day cancellation period.  They are only governed by TORT conditions.

We then stepped back through the Contract that my daughter had agreed to in her home, ie. away from the estate agent’s office.  Clearly she had been put under some pressure from the agent to get the house on the market (and by pressing a button to enable to advert ‘go live’ on the Yopa website, had somehow agreed to all of their Ts&Cs (clearly not so). There had been no mention of fees, should my daughter cancel.  The house was in her partner’s name – no-one had asked her if she was the owner.  The owner had not signed any agreement. The agent had quickly gone through the Ts&Cs during his 1 hour visit to the house, he then ticked a box that stated that he had ‘spoken to her about it’.  Following this, bank details were then requested.  My daughter had not been provided with a copy nor had she signed anything. On the evening that the agent visited the house, my daughter received a text from the agent to inform her that the Agent had prepared the advert and she could approve it from the Yopa hub account.  One detail was changed and as soon as the amendment had been made, she clicked a button to return the advert not realising that this meant that the advert was live immediately.  There was no warning of this around the button.

No allowances were made for disabilities.

eddddy

Redpath22 said:

We achieved this by speaking to the Ombudsman who told us that estate agents are classed as supplying a ‘unique’ service to clients and so are not regulated by the The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 and therefore are not subjected to the 14 day cancellation period.  

That's completely incorrect - Estate Agents are subject to the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

The Property Ombudsman confirms it in their Code of Practice - see below.

Perhaps the Ombudsman was saying something very different - for example, in the very specific case of Yopa, as soon as your daughter clicked the button, the property was advertised. Therefore the service had been provided in full (within a split-second). So your daughter lost her right to cancel after that split-second.

Here's what the Property Ombudsman says in their code of practice:

1b
You (*) must comply with this Code of Practice. You must comply with all laws (as amended, re-enacted or substituted with or without modification from time to time) relating to residential estate agency and in particular the Estate Agents Act 1979, the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007, the General Data Protection Regulation (or any successor legislation), Competition Act 1998, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs), Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 (BPRs), Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, Consumer Rights Act 2015, Energy Act 2011 (Green Deal) and all other current and relevant primary or secondary legislation.

5p
Your Terms of Business must clearly state the minimum duration of your instruction, and how it can be terminated by either party. When a contract is signed by a client during a visit by you to their home, at their place of work, away from your premises or online, then they must be given a right to cancel that contract within 14 calendar days after the day of signing. The client should be given a ‘Notice of Right to Cancel’. Where the client wishes the contract to begin before the end of the 14 day cancellation period you must obtain confirmation of that request in writing. Where you intend to recover costs incurred during this cancellation period you must obtain the client’s agreement in writing to those specific costs before work commences.

Here's the link to the code of practice: https://www.tpos.co.uk/images/Codes_2019_a5/TPOE27-8_Code_of_Practice_for_Residential_Estate_Agents_A5_-_Effective_1_June_2019.pdf