Estate agents are to pay £57 per office this year for the anti-money laundering regime that all must sign up for.
Estate agencies not yet registered will have to pay £74 per office for up to 20 offices.
Despite the legal requirement to register with the Office of Fair Trading, yesterday the OFT confirmed to EAT that there is still widespread non-compliance.
As of now, 6,593 estate agents are on the register. The OFT believes this leaves 3,000 flouting the law.
The OFT also announced that, following consultation, it will continue to use a premises-based approach to setting its anti-money laundering supervision fees.
During the consultation, to which there were just 38 responses, of which only 17 were estate agents, a number of alternative approaches to fee setting were suggested, such as setting flat fees. However, respondents overwhelmingly supported the retention of a premises-based fee, with the majority supporting the cap at 20 premises. Most respondents also preferred annual fee collection.
As a result, the OFT has decided to retain its current premises based model with an annual fee collection.
There is some good news for agents who registered before February 17: they will get a refund of £41 per office, again capped to 20 offices.
This is because the OFT’s anti-money laundering scheme, which is meant to be self-financing, inadvertently made a profit of £633,000 last year and this will now be redistributed.
The Money Laundering Regulations 2007 mean that all estate agents must sign up to the regime.
When it was introduced, agents were threatened with the prospect of fines and prison. But yesterday, an OFT spokeswoman confirmed to EAT that the ‘interim’ softly, softly approach would continue.
But although no agent has yet been fined or jailed over failure to comply, a list of penalties is to be compiled this year or next.
Under the rules, the OFT supervises two sectors, estate agents and consumer credit financial institutions which are involved in consumer credit lending activity which is not supervised by the Financial Services Authority.
It has long been a bone of contention among estate agents that they should not be subject to anti-money laundering rules, as they do not handle money. Letting agents, who do handle money, are not caught by the rules.
Comments
Ummmmmmmm.......6593 x £41 = £270,313 ( not £230k).........no wonder this industry has a bad name !!!.... some of us cant even do multiplication........Regards Bill.
Nick, you are the boss of Pali, the company you touted as if it belonged to someone else. You have broken the law (known as 'astroturfing', or passing off).
Good advert?
6593 agents at £41 is only £230k...what about the rest?
If only 6593 agents joined and they still made a profit of £633k, when the other 3000 agents finally join wont we end up getting all of our money back.
Or is this the suggestion to get us to "Police" ourselves.
Alternatively even at £100 per agent times the 3000 that didnt join puts another £300k in the pot. Divide this by the whole agent count now at 9593 and we all get £90 odd back?
They will soon be paying us to join?
Come on, either it's the law or it isn't. It may make no sense but this isn't Egypt and no one is going to take to the streets over this. One third of agents flouting the law gives the 'bash-an-agent lobby all the fodder they need.
Time that the Government stopped issuing warnings and started making some examples or those of us who signed up when we were first ask will be after a refund.
'.....INADVERTENTLY made a profit of £633,000 last year.....'
How many mangage that! Must be FLAIR Trading.
This could be a bit of a problem for solicitors and estate agents, and indeed bridging finance companies as the penalties for inadvertantly handleing a deal for a money laundering villain are very onerous.
However the solution is simple. Just Google Pali Ltd and you will find the telephone number for anti-money laundering and they will set you up with an account. It costs only £5 plus Vat per check and you can do it with the client sitting in front of you on your computer. It takes about 2 mins.
Quite amazing that one office Estate Agents are subsidising the giants likes Countrywide and so on, who get to pay for a max of 20 offices. Nothing fair in that. Charge per office would be fair.
Office of FAIR Trading, how is that fair ?