HMRC and National Trading Standards, the body which protects consumer rights, have agreed to step up their exchange of information in order to crack down on rogue estate agents
Estate agency businesses must register under money laundering regulations and for property redress schemes.
With effect from the start of this year, HMRC has agreed new procedures with the estate agency team at National Trading Standards which it says will ‘enhance and ease’ the current flow of information on estate agency businesses between both parties.
The agreement, which uses existing legal gateways, is effective from January 2017 and is designed to streamline co-operation and information exchange.
HMRC said the aim is to make it more difficult for non-compliant estate agency businesses to operate outside the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 and Estate Agency Act 1979.
The agreement will enable both parties to target areas of risk, those who are trading without registering appropriately and those who may not be meeting their obligations
