The Estate Agents (Undesirable Practices) Order 1991

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Estate Agents (Undesirable Practices)Order 1991 and shall come into force on 29th July 1991.

(2) In this Order—

“the Act” means the Estate Agents Act 1979;

“associate” has the meaning given to it in section 32(1) of the Act;

“client” means a person on whose behalf an estate agent acts;

“connected person” in relation to an estate agent means any of the following—

(a)

his employer or principal, or

(b)

any employee or agent of his, or

(c)

any associate of his or of any person mentioned in (a) and (b)above;

“estate agent” means any person who in the course of a business (including one inwhich he is employed) engages in estate agency work and includes caseswhere he is negotiating on his own behalf;

“estate agency work” has the meaning given in section 1(1) of the Act;

“financial benefit” includes commission and any performance related bonus;

“interest in land” means any of the interests referred to in section 2 of the Act andreferences to an

“interest in the land” are references to the particular interest in land of which theestate agent is engaged to secure the disposal or acquisition;

“promptly” means within as short a period as is reasonably practicable in thecircumstances, from the moment when what is to be done can reasonably bedone;

“purchaser” means a person to whom an interest in land is transferred or inwhose favour it is created;

“services” means any service for consideration provided, or to be provided, to a prospective purchaser—

(a)

by an estate agent or a connected person, or (in a case where theestate agent or a connected person would derive a financial benefit fromthe provision of the service) by another person, and which

(b)

is such as would ordinarily be made available to a prospectivepurchaser in connection with his acquisition of an interest in land orhis use or enjoyment of it (including the provision to that purchaser ofbanking and insurance services and financial assistance and securing thedisposal for that purchaser of an interest in land if that disposal isone which has to be made in order for him to be able to make theacquisition he is proposing or is one which is a result of thatacquisition).

Undesirable Practices

2.  For the purposes of section 3(1)(d) of the Act the followingpractices in relation to estate agency work are hereby declaredundesirable, that is to say as regards—

(a) the disclosure of a personal interest, any failure to disclose thatinterest as described in Schedule 1 to this Order;

(b) the arrangement and performance of services, any act or omission asdescribed in Schedule 2 to this Order;

(c) other matters in the course of that work, any misdescription oromission of the kind described in Schedule 3 to this Order;

and the provisions of such Schedules shall have effect for supplementing the above paragraphs.

Edward Leigh

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State,

Department of Trade and Industry

28th March 1991