Melfyn Williams wants to ban estate agents who breach the rules

A north Wales estate agent has called for a national licensing scheme for his profession to protect house buyers from rogue traders.

Melfyn Williams, of Llangefni-based Williams & Goodwin Estate Agent, was commenting after consumer magazine Which? revealed some estate agents are breaking the law and misleading customers.

Which? said the Office of Fair Trading should take stronger measures to supervise agents.

Mr Williams, who is also the president of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), has welcomed the suggestions and says he wants to see estate agents who breach codes of practice banned.

Speaking to News Online, he said: "This is something we have been calling for a long time.

There is no systematic way to prevent these types of breaches of the law, because no one sees it being broken Which? magazine

"We in the NAEA want the government to introduce a licensing scheme to allow estate agents to trade.

"We can't understand why the government doesn't want to do this - after all, an agent deals with the most important assets people have," he said.

"We want to be able to ban estate agents who are caught breaching codes of practice - they should lose their licence and their right to trade."

His advice for house buyers is to only deal with registered agents.

"The first thing people should do when looking for an estate agent on the high street is to look for one with our logo.

"I would advise them to go to an agent that is registered with either the NAEA, the Ombudsman or the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), who follow codes of practice," he said.

Which? is calling for all estate agents to be registered

Which? says it has uncovered serious breaches of the law and widespread use of complicated, misleading and legally unfair contracts in its investigation.

In March, they asked 10 home owners to put their properties on the market, each asking for valuations and copies of contracts from three estate agents.

Researchers then posed as potential buyers for the properties.

They found that one agent seriously violated the law.

Fabricated offer

"The agent had lied by saying that a higher offer had already been rejected and encouraged them to come back with another offer - the higher offer was a complete fabrication," the magazine said.

"This goes to the heart of the Estate Agents Act 1979.

"Although the act sets out the way estate agents are meant to behave, there is no systematic way to prevent these types of breaches of the law, because no one sees it being broken."

The investigation also found that less serious breaches were more widespread.

These included failing to pass on offers promptly and in writing and drawing up "needlessly and complicated contracts" which could lead to people paying thousands of pounds "even if an agent has done nothing to help the sale."

The measures they are calling for include spot-checks on estate agents' records, mandatory training and making it obligatory for practitioners to register with the ombudsman scheme.