Archive

As another round of property firms is fined, named and shamed for breaching anti-money laundering rules, it feels like the road...

In this latest ‘Women in Property’ edition of the Natter, I check in with Collette Allen, who was recently appointed as...

Agents have pledged to keep a close eye on planning reforms amid a proposed overhaul announced in the Queen’s Speech yesterday. Prince...

The Queen’s Speech has unveiled proposed overhauls on planning, consumer and economic crime laws that could all have an effect on...

A ‘frightening’ number of respondents to a Rightmove online poll appear to be unaware of their anti-money laundering reporting requirements. The portal...

A new Deputy Ombudsman, Lesley Horton, has been appointed by The Property Ombudsman Scheme. She will work alongside Property Ombudsman, Rebecca Marsh,...

PayProp’s recent Rental Confidence Index survey polled property professionals about their biggest concerns for 2022. Unsurprisingly, new regulations were a top...

A legal expert has warned that everyone is theoretically at risk of committing a breach of sanctions against Russia - but...

The UK government appears to have given sanctioned Russian property owners a get-out-of-jail card valid for six months.  It’s been confirmed that...

The Mayor of London is demanding ministers take sanctioning Russian oligarchs seriously by moving immediately to seize assets that can then...

Almost exactly a decade ago I wrote a blog on the back of a spate on mainstream news stories about prime...

The government is considering seizing British property owned by Russian oligarchs on the sanctions list without paying compensation. The Financial Times says Housing...

It is claimed by Propertymark that the government’s Economic Crime Bill - to be debated in the House of Commons today -...

The outcome of the Ukraine crisis is far from certain, but one thing has become abundantly clear. The long-overdue Economic Crime...

If the UK and its allies have been played by Russia over the Ukraine ‘invasion’, and it’s beginning to look that...

The UK property industry has long been a target of fraudsters due to the low levels of transparency and the fact...

Housing ministers have lined up in recent days to support beleaguered Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Housing minister Chris Pincher, upon hearing of new...

The government’s new Levelling Up White Paper, revealed this morning includes a radical reshaping of the private rental sector. Section 21 eviction...

Our Agents Do Charity column each Friday does a fantastic job of highlighting the amazing charitable work of agents up and...

Was Purplebricks right to delist a property from its website when it discovered the vendors - a Christian couple - were opposed...

An hour-long webinar this week aims to inform agents how to deter property fraud by greater emphasis on compliance, due diligence...

A warning has gone out to estate agents that “more and more” reports are being filed about cyber attacks on agencies...

A new guide to help avoid property title fraud, where home ownership can be stolen, has been released by the Fraud...

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on all aspects of our lives, but undoubtedly one major negative side effect...

Property fraud is on the rise and early in 2022 agents will have an opportunity to attend a webinar featuring a...

I’ve worked in financial crime for the past seven years, beginning my career as a white collar crime litigator in a law firm. I know that the...

While the Christmas season is usually heralded by an influx of terrible Christmas adverts, the launch of Starbucks’ gingerbread lattes, Adam...

Agents must have a robust plan in place in case they are subjected to a ransomware cyber attack, says the Guild...

Increasingly rigorous Money Laundering Directives have made regulations in the property industry more stringent than ever, and Estate Agents have a...

Fears are growing that large estate agency groups may have to pay a mandatory levy towards the cost of anti-money laundering...

The owner of an estate agency in Sussex has been jailed for five years for what a judge has called “an...

A prominent law expert is claiming that a high profile case of property fraud, reported earlier this week, involved a “devastating...

A BBC investigation has revealed that a man’s house was sold and his furnishings removed without his knowledge, in the latest...

We have all heard the terrible forecasts and listened to Sir David Attenborough’s speeches on the environment and the “we still...

The Pandora Papers - the biggest ever leak of offshore data - has revealed that the UK’s property market is being...

Buyers are being warned about scams conning people out of hundreds of thousands of pounds. The Law Society of England and Wales...

Disclaimer: This article is intended for information only and does not constitute legal advice. As part of its 2020 budget, the UK...

A burglar who ransacked an independent agency’s branch office and stole equipment worth almost £2,000 has escaped prison. Bilal Hemmi of Windsor...

The independent QC leading a review into the governance scandal at the RICS says there was “no fraudulent or criminal misbehaviour”...

Regulators are warning the UK’s property, finance and legal sectors to be aware of the possible impacts of the exit from...

An estate agent with stomach cancer faces a prison sentence after pleading guilty of defrauding an 80 year old pensioner out...

Thirty-five years after London estate agent Suzy Lamplugh disappeared, the trust that bears her name is calling for action to address...

The estate agent who accosted England's chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, has been charged with common assault. Lewis Hughes, 23 and...

The founder and managing director of FCS Compliance, Jerry Walters, has died suddenly. A statement from the company says he died during...

The property market was expected to struggle to recover after the first lockdown, but, thanks to the stamp duty holiday and...

An assessment by a risk solutions firm shows that estate agents are on average just 53 per cent of the way...

With property fraud on the rise and an ever-increasing number of transactions taking place in the lettings sector, having strict anti-money laundering...

The man behind the free-to-list portal Residential People says security across all portals should be tightened, with so-called Two Factor Authentication...

A leading industry trade body is warning that remote-working agents and smaller independent agencies are particularly vulnerable to the growing threat...

Brexit means that the UK’s anti-money laundering laws are no longer governed by the European Union (EU), but any estate agents...

Local elections rarely set the pulse racing and this year’s poll on Thursday faces a similar problem. But this time, it’s a...

A new property board game called Gazumped aims to rival Monopoly but reflect a much more realistic view of how the house...

The Chancellor’s recent announcement that the stamp duty holiday would be extended for another three months was undoubtedly great news for...

The original stamp duty freeze, which started in July 2020, has already helped push house prices to a record high and...

Another TV programme will this weekend examine the fate of Suzy Lamplugh, the London estate agent who disappeared 35 years ago...

In this week’s In Conversation Today, I speak with Anthony Payne, Managing Director and co-founder of LonRes, a data and network...

Being a letting agent today means keeping up to date with the long list of rules and regulations governing how a...

A high-profile London agency is asking the police and property industry bodies including Trading Standards to investigate a fake company posing under...

An agent has told a court she was 'heartbroken' to discover her accountant had stolen cash from her business, which then...

A trade body is warning that increased home working triggered by Coronavirus makes the agency industry more vulnerable than ever to...

Estate agencies have been named by HM Revenue & Customs for breaching anti-money laundering regulations. The list of those breaching the rules...

A cyber-attack on a London council has caused some transactions to fall through and others to be significantly delayed. The attack occurred...

The coronavirus pandemic has somewhat eclipsed Brexit this year – which is no mean feat. Cast your mind back to pre-Covid...

The property market, and therefore, estate agents have been accused of being the 'weak link' in the UK’s money laundering defences. This...

Agents in some parts of the country may be able to make use of data from utilities comparison service uSwitch, which...

Foxtons is alleged by a newspaper to have suffered a malware attack and data breach which closed its MyFoxtons client website. The...

The government has issued new guidance to estate and lettings agencies on their obligations regarding money laundering issues - and online...

A security company says it is “disappointing” the estate agency industry is only around 55 per cent through preparations to cope...

A businessman with links to serious criminals has lost his vast investment property empire worth nearly £10m after a National Crime...

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been criticised for its lack of enforcement of anti-money laundering (AML) legislation so far in...

A disgraced former estate agent has paid his victims around £110,000 but must pay another £5,000 or so in the immediate...

Over £73,000 has been stolen from a Countrywide branch by two admin staff making false travel claims and issuing fake invoices. The crimes...

The last few months have been tough for the property sector, and the pressure will continue as estate agents across the...

National Crime Agency officers working as part of a Paramilitary Crime Task Force have searched a home in Belfast and have...

NAEA Propertymark is calling on agents to show “greater diligence” when dealing with Russian buyers, in the light of the report...

Businesses across all sectors have struggled to adapt to the changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. One group that have bucked...

A successful property newspaper has collapsed after one of its former directors turned computer hacker and deliberately deleted over 5,000 files...

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has revised its Anti-Money Laundering guidance in the light of Coronavirus. It says the scale of...

The Police and Crime Commissioner for an area with thousands of holiday homes wants their owners to make them available to...

The lightbulb moment for LonRes was born out of sheer frustration. I’d just missed out on a deal and the postman...

A woman claims she had no idea that her husband stole almost £1.5m from two high-profile employers - one of them...

“It appears conveyancers either aren’t too concerned with PropTech right now, or they don’t yet have all the information needed to...

Estate agents concerned over security breaches will be closely analysing what happens with a case concerning a London firm’s compromised email...

Six common ‘crimes of modern-day call handling’ are blighting UK estate and letting agencies and hampering their growth, reputation and profitability. These...

Estate agents and others in the property industry have much more to do to deter money laundering. That’s the view of a security...

An online estate agent is awaiting sentence after being found guilty of a £5,000 fraud  Claire Ainsworth, who worked for the agency...

Yesterday (January 10 2020), the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD) became law. It forms part of ongoing international efforts to tackle...

The Fifth Money Laundering Directive becomes law in the UK on January 10 2020, strengthening the responsibilities placed on private companies...

Properties worth a combined £8.1m have been surrendered to the National Crime Agency following a tax probe. The properties included 16 homes...

The police in Crewe are appealing for information after two charity boxes were stolen from an estate agent in the town.  The...

The police are looking for witnesses or anyone who can help identify the burglars accused of an extensive spray-paint attack on...

London-focussed business-to-business deal data service LonRes has acquired an anti-money laundering compliance consultancy specialising in residential and commercial property. Financial Crime Services,...

As an agent, it’s part of your role to protect and advise your clients throughout the buying and selling process. Mortgages are...

There’s been a five per cent rise in the cases of mortgage fraud as increasing numbers of house buyers appear to...

A property MOT being launched by Countrywide and described as “game changing” for the house buying process will include survey and...

A fraudster who claimed to be an estate agent has been jailed for four years after conning vulnerable women into giving...

Countrywide’s surveying division says it’s found a “knowledge gap” in existing surveys after a study involving over 15,000 buyers. The agency group...

A Northern Irish woman with suspected links to serious organised crime has been ordered to explain how she financed the purchase...

An estate agent who ruthlessly used his position as a prominent figure in the community to win the trust of vulnerable...

The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that an excavation that took place yesterday was part of its ongoing investigation into the disappearance...

An estate agent has been fined after racially abusing a police officer in an incident outside a nightclub. Sarah Loasby, from Kettering,...

Three ultra-high-value London properties cannot be sold while a money laundering investigation continues. The houses have not been identified but were most...

The UK property market can be seen by criminals as an effective vehicle to conceal the proceeds of economic crime. Criminally...

An estate agent in the north east of England has been told he will face prison after admitting two counts of...

A man has surrendered to police after admitting smashing an estate agency's window. The Oxford Mail reports that a 30-year-old from Abingdon, who has...

Police are continuing to appeal for information on a horrific hammer attack on the owner and chairman of Bridges Estate Agents...

An insurance company claims that over 29,000 property deals fall through in a year because buyers get cold feet over their...

An owner who enhanced the price of his property by illegally hacking branches off a tree has ordered to pay back...

Thinking about the state of communication across residential property chains is enough to induce a severe migraine. We work in a world...

Estate agent anti-money laundering (AML) compliance is under scrutiny again following the publication of figures detailing the fines levied for AML...

The influential Treasury Select Committee says estate agents should be more closely monitored to ensure they abide by anti-money laundering regulations. In...

HM Revenue & Customs has issued more details of its bid to encourage estate agents to combat money laundering in the...

It’s been revealed that Countrywide has been hit with a £215,000 fine as part of a swoop by HMRC cracking down...

The controversial property portal Propertyheads has compiled a blacklist of tradesmen who have a criminal record. The website says this is the...

The government’s anti-money laundering campaign Flag It Up has published an A to Z which it claims will help agents understand...

The Money Laundering Regulations require estate agents to risk assess their business relationships and apply an appropriate level of investigation to...

Mystery surrounds the details of an apparent theft of thousands of pounds by three men who walked into an estate agency...

To a sales-focused agency, having a lettings department can sometimes feel like losing control of the business. Recent cases of property management...

An estate agent who stole per £300,000 from an estate agency spent the money on designer goods and expensive holidays -...

An estate agent in the north of England has been confronted by vigilantes who duped him into thinking they were underage girls.  The...

The government has moved to crack down on money laundering in the UK with a new campaign focusing on the accountancy,...

The National Association of Estate Agents has met with other members of a high-level government board to look at ways of...

When renting a property out, letting agents and landlords recognise that it is important to take a deposit from the tenant...

Police have confirmed that a search is taking place at a property in the Midlands, in the hunt for the body...

The government has told the estate agency industry that it has a “moral” obligation to report suspicions about potential money laundering. Figures...

It’s time to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to overseas buyers of property. If you listen to Theresa...

A government minister has made a pointed jibe at estate agents who appear not to regard cash purchases of high-value properties...

A Huddersfield estate agent who crashed her car while four times over the drink-drive limit has been banned from driving for...

A maverick Cornish estate agent who falsely gave the impression to customers that his business was highly successful has been hit...

Local media in Huddersfield report that an estate agent smashed into a traffic bollard while four times over the drink-drive limit...

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - which replaces the Data Protection Act 1998 - has now become effective and is...

Does your company apply adequate customer due diligence measures when carrying out estate agency work?  Does it establish and maintain appropriate policies...

A PropTech company boss says evidence given to MPs confirms the need to improve anti-money laundering processes through greater automation and...

A pensioner who committed sexual assaults on two women - one of them an estate agent - has been sent to...

How can you use data to benefit and better your business? It’s something you’ll no doubt have asked yourself down the...

A man who is accused of assaulting an estate agent is to face trial. The Bournemouth Daily Echo reports that Marc Skelton,...

The announcement that MPs will set up a Select Committee to probe the scale of money laundering in the UK property...

A 15-month research project says HMRC should do more to engage estate agents in recognising the importance of complying with anti-money...

The Treasury Select Committee of MPs has announced an inquiry into ‘economic crime’ - including the possibility that overseas-owned UK homes could be...

An estate agent who ‘glassed’ a man who rejected her advances in a pub has escaped a prison sentence. Sarah Brown, 27,...

A Stratford estate agent accused of killing his wife on New Year’s Day has pleaded not guilty to a charge of...

Crimestoppers is working with estate agencies and financial advisers as well as conveyancers in a bid to eliminate house buyers’ deposits...

The UK property sector has been a hotbed for financial crime in recent years, with many criminals seeing it as an...

Almost a third of all ‘Suspicious Activity Reports’ concerning possible anti-money laundering infringements and reported to the National Crime Agency have...

An estate agent has offered a reward of £1,000 for information to help find a safe stolen from his premises during...

An estate agent charged has been charged with the murder of his wife who was stabbed to death at their home...

The Home Office has announced a new division to tackle fraud issues, including money laundering. A new national economic crime centre within...

A local news outlet in Essex is reporting that a Chelmsford agent claims he crashed his car whilst driving drunk following...

Thieves have broken into an estate agency branch within a fortnight of it opening and are reported to have stolen equipment...

In the UK, there are over 3.9 million homes situated in off-grid areas with no access to mains gas, so it’s...

The spread and sophistication of financial crime in the UK in recent years has been unprecedented.  Figures from UK Finance show that...

One one in every 300 property purchases by overseas buyers trigger a so-called ‘red flag’ with the National Crime Agency -...

The National Association of Estate Agents is telling members to delete a spam email purporting to have been sent by the...

An insurance provider says small estate agencies are peculiarly vulnerable to cyber attack yet are amongst the least prepared amongst their...

A Hampshire property investor who failed to declare Capital Gains Tax from the sale of properties evading £157,725, has been jailed...

The police are investigating a quick sale company after a claim by an individual that he received less than half of...

A man who stole envelopes containing keys from an estate agents’ office by using a pole projected through the letter box...

The National Association of Estate Agents has thrown its weight behind a government move to create a register of overseas companies...

New analysis shows what appears to be the correlation between rising house prices and falling burglary rates across the country.  The research,...

An estate agent will be sentenced next month after pleading guilty to 76 fraud offences.   The Get Surrey website reports that Ayodele...

It has been revealed that an estate agent who is serving a five year prison sentence for fraud is to return...

A new property portal is to launch in April, and has this week started recruiting estate and letting agency members while...

London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s aim of creating a 24-hour city is one step closer with the appointment of London’s first Night...

Who are you? Nick Dyoss, Group Business Development Director, SearchFlow, property intelligence specialists You have a high profile within the conveyancing search industry,...

Two men who confessed to killing a British estate agent are being held in Turkish controlled northern Cyprus - although they...

After all the recent Whitehall upheaval we can perhaps get back to business; and first item on the agenda seems to...

Nearly three quarters of people who have sold or bought a property deem it more stressful than having a child or...

  Who are you? Carole Marsden   What does it say on your business card? UK Sales Director What attracted you to join SearchFlow?  SearchFlow has...

Fraudsters attacking the conveyancing sector, successfully stealing large sums of money from homebuyers, are making national headlines at a depressing rate....

The race to replace London Mayor Boris Johnson has entered its final few days, and like never before, housing is the...

An estate agent has pleaded guilty to a charge of drink-driving after being found almost three times above the legal alcohol...

An estate agent has been jailed for five years for taking more than £450,000 from elderly clients in Cumbria. A BBC report says...

An estate agent who has pleaded guilty to 13 counts of fraud involving around £450,000 has been warned he is likely...

Police have released footage of an estate agent who has been jailed for four years after repeatedly running over his girlfriend's...

Purplebricks chief executive Michael Bruce is to speak alongside eMoov founder Russell Quirk in a debate to be held at the...

So how long does a visitor typically stay in an estate agency office? Well, if it’s the case of intruders, about 15...

“Estate Agents have been highlighted by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) as under reporting relative to their vulnerability to money...

A conveyancer who swindled his clients and HM Revenue and Customs out of almost £352,500 in stamp duty land tax, has...

Estate agents have been accused of flouting the rules by erecting For Sale and To Let signs despite a voluntary ban. The...

A 25 year old estate agent accused of raping a 53 year old woman after meeting her outside a nightclub has...

A new online service claims to protect agents and others working in the industry from the threat of cybercrime.  The service, called...

The National Association of Estate Agents admits that “take up has been low” in its bid to persuade each member agent to...

Three prisoners have been convicted of a prison attack on Jeremy Green, the former army lieutenant jailed for life for the...

Online estate agent SellMyHome is teaming up with local-area research information provider Property Detective to offer what it calls a “hybrid”...

A legal expert suggests central London’s house prices may have been skewed because of money-laundering - “and we all know it.” Jonathan...

There is still no word on when a police investigation will report on alleged irregularities said to involve the buy to...

It was interesting to see the report on Estate Agent Today about the meeting between London estate agents, NAEA, and HMRC. No,...

An estate agent accused of being behind a £300,000 fraud has appeared before Carlisle Crown Court. The Cumbrian News & Star local...

A sales director of a branch of Humberts has resigned after being found guilty of stealing £2,500 from a charity. Jane Hale...

A jealous estate agent has been jailed for two months after dousing the bed of his ex-partner with diesel fuel and...

The head of research at lettings portal Lettingweb.com says the National Crime Agency’s claims about hundreds of billions of pounds of...

Estate agents have been warned by the National Crime Agency that they must not hesitate to inform the authorities if they...

The rising phenomenon of agent-rating and review websites is a topic that seems to have caused considerable division and controversy among...

The National Association of Estate Agents says the agents named in Channel 4‘s From Russia With Cash documentary may have tarnished...

A man suffered "deep lacerations" to his hand after allegedly smashing the window of an estate agency office in Ilminster, Somerset.  The...

The Competition and Markets Authority has used Twitter to inform agents of the risks of joining trade assocaitons with loosely-worded or...

Poldark, a period drama recently on the BBC, has inspired a new trend dubbed the 'Poldark Effect'.  Rather than an increase in...

An estate agent has been charged by police with 16 counts of fraud. Donald George Anthony Scott, 61, from Bolton Low Houses,...