Agents must sign up with Anti Money Laundering register

Brian - from one non-Agent to another (assuming I read you correctly...) - Go find another rock to squirm under! Comments like yours must fill hardworking, honest Estate Agents with joy at the thought of meeting potential clients like you every day... Useless legislation (HIPs, AMLR, etc) costs in terms of time and money to administer - as well as the 'fees' involved - which all gets paid for by the end user. That's you and me, when we sell our homes. If you could understand this you would be using your brain for its intended purpose, which would be a better thing as it is no good at sarcasm...

• 14 July 2009 15:34 PM

PS. If I have to register, I will under protest, but I will exercise my right under european law to pay for the service provided. As no service to me, no fee will be paid.

• 14 July 2009 13:51 PM

What purpose does this register achieve in preventing money laundering? Since when were estate agents required to be the police. The buck stops with the solicitor, as they are the people who handle the money, arrange the contract and complete the transaction, not an estate agent. Are the solicitors required to register? You only have to look at the farce on registering under the FSA to forward a mortgage application to a lender (a lender that was irresponsible and bailed out by the tax payer with no penalty, but given a multi million pound bonus!!)Bureaucratic non-sense. When will someone walk into Westminster and sort these idiots out?

• 14 July 2009 13:47 PM

Suggestion. Stop crying, do your job, sell some property, no wonder the public hate Estate Agents. 90% babies

• 14 July 2009 09:55 AM

I feel another splinta style petition being called for.

• 13 July 2009 11:17 AM

What is particularly ridiculous about all of this is that we agents are continuing to be required to implement anti money-laundering procedures with SELLERS not BUYERS. If someone has a bag of "dirty" money, surely they are much more likely to buy a property (and get rid of the money) than to sell (and keep the bag).

• 13 July 2009 10:58 AM

Just refuse to pay it! What they gonna do, throw us in jail?
Who will it be next, shops, pubs, taxi drivers and then when they are through the the anti money laundering register, they going to bring in the anti any crime register, which we must pay towards too! These are just more new taxes, which we need to fight!

• 13 July 2009 01:44 AM

Compulsory: Data Protection fees, OEA membership, Professional Indemnity insurance, HIPS & now Money Laundering. When will those useless pieces of dog faeces in Westminster ever give up? We have to pay a fee, get wrapped up in paperwork & the crims get 20 hours community service which they don't even fulfil. The sooner I can emmigrate & leave this crappy country behind the better for me.

• 10 July 2009 18:36 PM

Yet more expensive red tape. When will these petty bureaucrats get it through their heads that estate agents rarely, if ever, handle the monies in a sale and therefore have precious little opportunity to detect money laundering.

• 10 July 2009 14:56 PM

Sidney - Mine went as Dick Turpin!!

• 10 July 2009 14:48 PM

To charge agents for the privilege of being policed, with the threat of being fined or imprisoned if they do not comply, is insulting.

I've just had a long conversation with the OFT about this new register, and the regulations in general. It is clear that the potential gain from this [2007] regulation over and above the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, and the activities already undertaken by a solicitor during a sale, is nothing more than the "requirement to keep records, etc.".

Susan Edwards from the OFT has told me that this the regulation was brought in because it became clear that people were not reporting their suspicions, as prescribed by POCA 2002. What a surprise! Essentially, all that is achieved by the new regs is record keeping and proof of ID. I also asked Hannah Griffith from OFT why this does not apply to lettings agents, as they deal with cash. Not their problem, concern or interest was the response I received.

As for the fee, this is to cover the incremental costs of the OFT policing this new regulation. I asked for the annual budget figure for this incremental cost, so that I could divide it by the number of agents across the country. This was refused, and I was advised that a request must be made in writing under the Freedom of Information Act, which I've done.

• 10 July 2009 14:25 PM

oh go on then kick us while were down ...pure extortion as last seen in THE GODFATHER

• 10 July 2009 14:14 PM

There has to be a huge question as to what value and purpose have this register would bring. This government chose not to have compulsory regulations for Estate Agency as an industry and yet seem hell bent on introducing back door rules and regulations that are not joined up, necessary or even make sense.

• 10 July 2009 12:08 PM

The Minister said 'this new department will not cost the taxpayer a penny to run'

How can we have respect for today's Politicians? Ours last week attended a fete dressed as Elvis Presley. Still perhaps that's his level?

• 10 July 2009 11:41 AM

Is there an office somehwere with a jobs worth sitting at a desk who`s sole purpose is to screw as much money from our industry as possible?

• 10 July 2009 11:32 AM