A NEW body set up to regulate estate agents and auctioneers has received over 90 complaints in a year, though none has resulted in sanctions being imposed on a member of the profession.
The National Property Services Regulatory Authority (NPSRA) says it has issued an unspecified number of informal warnings to auctioneers and estate agents who have breached its code of conduct since it came into force in May 2008. A spokesman admitted the sanctions provided for in the code of practice were “not very strong” because the legislation to put the NPSRA on a statutory footing had yet to pass into law.
The sanctions currently available include a private or public warning, or a recommendation that an estate agent be suspended or excluded from membership of a professional body.
“Once the legislation is enacted and more stringent sanctions introduced a significant increase in the level of complaints is anticipated,” he said.
After the Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009 is passed, the authority will have the power to revoke licences or suspend membership of professional bodies.
Of the 90 complaints received, 20 related to management companies or agents and could not be addressed by the NPSRA in the absence of legislation.
“We had to confine ourselves to either giving guidance as to what steps the complainant might take, including seeking legal advice, or directing them towards other authorities who might be of assistance to them.”
The authority said 17 complaints had been concluded and the remaining 43 were still being investigated. All of the concluded cases had been handled through mediation and since the complainants were happy with their outcome, the authority said, there was no need to put the complaints before a full hearing of a disciplinary board. Another 11 complaints were not proceeded with.
Two-thirds of the State’s 2,800 estate agents have signed up to the code of practice.
The NPSRA, which has offices in Navan, Co Meath, was set up on an interim basis in 2006 to take over the licensing of estate agents from the courts and the Revenue Commissioners. When legislation is passed, it will have the power to set and enforce education and training standards, promote consumer awareness and protection, and establish a property services compensation fund.
The Bill is unlikely to pass all stages in Oireachtas until next year. Until then customers will find it difficult to obtain compensation from an estate agent where problems arise unless the agent belongs to a compensation fund run by a professional body.
Last week, the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute (IAVI) said it would be paying a total of over €150,000 from its compensation fund to housebuyers who lost their deposits with the collapse of a Co Wicklow firm.
The IAVI said 40 estate agents lost their membership last year for failing to show they had complied with a requirement to complete 60 hours of continuing education in a three-year period.