Archive

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

Speedy property sales may not be as good as they seem, an industry figure has warned. Recent figures released by Rightmove indicate...

In this guest piece, Colum Smith, a property expert at law firm Taylor Rose MW, sets out why speedier transactions could...

Accountancy terminology can be a turn off to many business owners, understandably so given that the majority aren’t working in lettings...

Law firm Taylor Rose MW has acquired a stake in proptech firm SlothMove in an effort to help combat property fraud. SlothMove...

In a new column, solicitor Colum Smith, an expert in combating fraud at Taylor Rose MW Solicitors, explains why those looking...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a dramatic future income tax cut, changes to National Insurance thresholds and scrapping VAT on more...

The international reviews service Trustpilot has batted away criticism from a property website that it ignores breaches of its guidelines. Last week,...

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

A row has broken out over a company which has made allegations about Trustpilot reviews of OnTheMarket. A company called KwikChex says...

We know that agents rely heavily on property software solutions to run their agency, particularly to ease the burden of administrative...

In the last two years digital Property Logbooks for our homes have moved from concept to reality with almost a quarter...

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

Agents are being offered a free review of their compliance status between now and the end of March by a PropTech...

Alexander Siedes, CEO of Homeppl, reveals the top five ways people try and commit tenancy fraud and how to spot and stop...

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

A long running dispute between reviews website allAgents and Purplebricks has come back to life - with a new twist. In 2017...

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

As this is the first Natter back since the Christmas break, I should like to first wish all our readers a...

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

A conveyancer has contacted Estate Agent Today suggesting that the Simplify Group IT data crisis could be the death knell for the company...

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...

With tenancy fraud on the rise, landlords are increasingly wary. So, they want to work with agencies who do everything they...

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...

Estate agents are being urged to ensure their compliance procedures are up to scratch after fraudsters stole a man’s identity and...

Despite the progress made in so many areas, particularly in terms of leasehold reform – although we are calling upon the...

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

The phrase ‘time is money’ is particularly pertinent for estate agents. Since the stamp duty holiday ended, the forecast drop in...

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...

RICS has appointed a former civil servant with a 42-year career as its new audit committee chair. Mike Driver, currently president of...

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

In the UK, 3.5 million households — which is over one-third of UK households — are either privately or socially rented,...

There’s been another step to make house sales more secure and speedier, with a pilot scheme starting next month. Five major identity...

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

An alert has gone out to sales and lettings agents to be more diligent with their checking of data, and to...

In this thought leadership article, Videosign CEO Steven Tallant looks at electronic signatures and conveyancing and whether the time is nigh for the...

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is trying to win back respect within the property industry with new Rules of Conduct...

The stamp duty holiday concluded at midnight, marking the end of the busiest period for the industry - all parts of...

The governing council of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has issued a public apology to the whistle blowers whose actions...

A PropTech firm backed by Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman has launched a new anti-money laundering (AML) tool for estate agents. Thirdfort has...

New figures from HM Treasury have revealed that businesses, including a number of major agencies, have returned £1.3 billion in furlough...

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...

A news conference today is expected to reveal more details of the governance scandal which has engulfed the Royal Institution of...

The chief executive of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Sean Tompkins, is in talks to step down according to an...

The work of the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team is “vital” it claims - and the case of the...

A banned West Midlands estate agent has today been sentenced to a custodial sentence of six weeks, suspended for two years, and fined £4,000 at Wolverhampton Crown Court after pleading guilty...

HM Revenue & Customs is reported to be targeting recent home buyers after a slump in income from property taxes during...

The independent QC asked to prepare a report into the financial conduct row at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has...

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

The publication of a report following a controversial RICS investigation has been pushed back another month. Last month it was announced that...

A bankrupt builder from Devon persuaded pensioners to pay him £271,000 to construct a home - but his poor workmanship has...

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...

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

In recent years, the property market has been taking steps to become more digital – with HM Land Registry leading the...

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...

Rightmove is to roll-out two-factor authentication within Rightmove Plus to try to protect agents against attempts by fraudsters to steal leads and...

The independent review into the governance of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is calling for comments. Earlier this year RICS was the...

The anti-money laundering compliance service that is now part of data company LonRes is holding a training session for Rightmove member...

As an estate agent, you should of course be performing robust Know Your Customer (KYC) checks as part of your Anti-Money...

With property transactions taking longer than ever and many people operating at capacity, it is easy to overlook the progress made,...

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

Rightmove has promised to keep its restrictions on access to Rightmove Plus under review - and says it’s aiming to help...

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

In a video interview for Letting Agent Today, property professional Chris Buckler speaks to Mike Dawson, Group Head of Sales at...

An agent working for a Countrywide brand in Lancashire has been given a suspended jail sentence after being found guilty of...

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

A newspaper claims that thousands of customers’ financial details held by Foxtons Group are being freely accessed on the so-called dark...

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors last night announced a dramatic U-turn in the controversy over a report by an independent...

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...

The president of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors insists that the organisation is acting on recommendations of a probe into...

The Sunday Times has made new and detailed allegations regarding the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. For some weeks the newspaper has...

MPs want the government to publish the names of estate agencies and other companies claiming furlough funding. The all-party Public Accounts Committee of...

Ever since the initial ripples of innovation in the 1990s, PropTech has proceeded to reshape our market beyond recognition; going on...

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

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has extended the furlough scheme until the end of March. It will continue under the current rules, with the...

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

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...

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...

A law practice says HM Revenue & Customs is launching a probe into companies that have allegedly abused the Coronavirus furlough...

Can technology bring about the lasting change needed to the property industry? The industry has felt the effect of lockdown and...

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

To most people, purchasing a home is the single most significant financial commitment made across a lifetime. Given the impact and...

Consumers are not as worried as they should be about conveyancing fraud, putting them at risk of losing life-changing sums of...

Aside from the obvious health crisis, the current pandemic is proving difficult for the business worldwide. However, despite the increasing contact...

Sellers are being warned to make strict checks before responding to advertisements apparently from prospective buyers.  The National Association of Property Buyers...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced new measures to help the self-employed - likely to be welcomed by self-employed estate agents. The Chancellor...

An estate agent who swindled a 69 year old woman out of £5,000 has escaped jail - and has been ordered...

A number of estate agents have recently received phishing emails, fraudulently claiming to be from the main portals and trying to...

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

Quite a few years ago, I spoke at a conference for auctioneers. It was a traditional affair. Rural location. Nice hotel....

In the field of conveyancing, there’s a new dynamic at play. And that dynamic is customer-driven and customer-focused, using digital technology...

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

Estate agents who deliberately over-value properties in order to win instructions are effectively committing fraud according to a prominent industry figure. Russell...

Alex Chesterman, the entrepreneur who founded Zoopla, has given vocal backing to a new conveyancing app called Thirdfort. The app allows conveyancers’...

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

When Jasmine Fakir moved from her home in Brent, north London, to look after her ill mother she certainly did not...

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...

Hello and welcome to your regular Monday PJT, the essential guide to who’s moving where in our industry. Everyone mentioned here got...

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

This is the busiest week of the year for house moves, with the single busiest day being Friday according to a...

It is now over two months since the introduction of the ban on fees charged to tenants, leaving letting agents with...

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

The Information Commissioner’s Office has fined a London estate agency £80,000 for leaving 18,610 customers' personal data exposed for almost two years. The security...

The police have opened an investigation after a number of complaints have been made about the financial affairs of a sales...

Estate Agent Today has been contacted by an individual who says he is one of three former Emoov customers intending to...

Facebook is set to enter the cryptocurrency business with the big reveal of its formal plans scheduled for some point this...

An IT firm says small and medium-sized estate agencies without the infrastructure of large corporates are putting themselves and their customers...

A Parliamentary committee has claimed that 160 properties in the UK are owned by “high corruption-risk individuals” and wants more to...

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...

Low risk letting is everyone’s aim, but unless legitimate guidelines are followed it’s difficult to know if a tenant will prove...

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

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...

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

If you want an engaging page-turner novel for cold winter evenings, my recommendation is Our House by Louise Candlish, a bestseller...

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...

It’s been revealed that 37 regulated conveyancing firms have repelled attempted frauds in the past year. But 11 conveyancing firms have actually...

An insurance company is launching a policy which it says will protect consumers with comprehensive cover in the event of a...

Technology is transforming the way we comply with Anti Money Laundering (AML) regulation. It is providing a consistent approach, reliable outcomes...

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

A leading legal firm has given broad approval to proposals from the Law Commission aimed at improving the conveyancing process and...

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

A businessman who’s just entered the estate agency industry says he’s got the secret behind Purplebricks’ success - even though he...

Since January 2018, nine of the UK’s biggest banks have allowed competitors direct access to customer data as part of the...

The Law Commission has unveiled proposals that it claims could stop property fraudsters in theirb tracks and improve conveyancing at the...

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

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

The Money Laundering Regulations 2017 require estate agents to risk assess their business relationships and apply an appropriate level of investigation...

The Court of Appeal has overturned controversial fraud decisions which have a bearing on agents’ and conveyancers’ responsibilities for checking buyers’...

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 has been jailed for 18 months after he took out £30,000 worth of loans in the name of...

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

The government has given its support to Land Registry proposals to increase the digitalisation of its services, with changes coming into...

The Sun reports that a British estate agent spent three weeks in jail in Dubai after sending a highly critical WhatsApp...

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

An estate agent branded as "thoroughly dishonest" following a Gumtree scam has been jailed for 20 months, suspended for two years....

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

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

In his PropTech 3.0 report, Andrew Baum dedicated an entire section to blockchain; it was titled: ‘Blockchain is coming – get...

Having launched 13 years ago, PayProp, part of Humanstate Group, an international private technology services group, has grown into a leading...

The Property Ombudsman has taken the unusual step of warning all estate and letting agents to act with caution over fraudulent...

When a tenant failed to pay any rent after the first month his tenancy last year, the landlord did not expect...

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

One of the biggest stories post-Brexit is how the housing market has proven to be more resilient than anyone could have...

The publication of our Strategic Plan, ‘Building the framework for the future’, met with an anticipated degree of positive and not-so-positive...

A US technology company is warning that estate agency websites with log-in pages are “at risk of data theft, account takeover...

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

The Conveyancing Association wants the creation of a ‘log book’ and ‘Home Reports’ for each home on sale - reminiscent in...

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

Over 50,000 have signed up to the Land Registry’s property fraud alert service following a series of high-profile stories on the...

An estate agent spotted her father’s house advertised on Rightmove just three days before it was due to be auctioned -...

An estate agent at an office of London agency Felicity J Lord, who alleged unethical practices were taking place in the...

The Conveyancers' Association has called for sweeping changes to the house buying and moving system to create a "more certain and...

The National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team based in Powys has revealed that its cases under investigation include apparent offences of...

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

An agent at the centre of the campaign to expose and stop portal juggling wants to know whether the National Trading...

The National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team is warning agents not to engage in portal juggling - an activity it describes...

A man has been prosecuted for fraudulently attempting to purchase a Right To Buy council property from one of the local...

  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....

Conducting Customer Due Diligence on clients and beneficial owners is a requirement for all estate agents.   The articles in this series...

SearchFlow, property intelligence specialists, has partnered with Decision First to offer an unrivalled service to protect conveyancers and homebuyers from the...

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...

A rogue estate agent has been jailed for 10 months for what a judge has described as a “thoroughly dishonest” act,...

The Land Registry has thrown more light on the case in which veteran war reporter Max Hastings was the subject of...

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

An estate agent accused of an alleged £300,000 fraud charge has appeared in a magistrates court, ahead of an expected Crown...

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

Money laundering and the controversies raised by the From Russia With Cash documentary will be amongst the subjects under discussion at...

An estate agent is going on trial concerning allegations that he defrauded people of over a quarter of a million pounds. Russell...

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

A property company claims that more than £31m has been paid out by the Land Registry in the past three years...

A London mortgage broker who lied about his company profits to evade almost £115,000 in corporation tax has been found guilty...

eMoov boss Russell Quirk and a senior member of his management team have been targeted in a fraud scam.  Yesterday morning the...

The National Association of Estate Agents says HMRC have been making unscheduled visits to individual agency offices to check on their...

A Cumbrian estate agent has appeared in court charged with 16 counts of fraud. The Cumbrian News & Star newspaper reports that...

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