Regulating British Real Estate Agents

The Economist:

MOST people are all too familiar with estate-agent speak, in which "charming" means tiny and a "mature garden" is a jungle. The firms are only doing their job, which is to sell houses. Recession has made that tougher, and the temptation to indulge in hyperbole even greater.

This is harmless stuff, but estate agents who lie and cheat more seriously have enjoyed years of little or no regulation. It is only since October 2008 that they have had to become members of a redress scheme, so that complaints against them--for bigger sins than abuse of the English language--are handled in an orderly fashion. Such sins often involve taking secret commissions or failing to disclose hidden charges. Two schemes to resolve disputes exist, the bigger of which is run by the Property Ombudsman (TPO). Its ultimate sanction is reporting an estate agent to the Office of Fair Trading, which can put him on a register that bars him from practising. More than 130 are on the list.