Estate agents who act for both the buyer and seller in a property transaction should truthfully indicate the price as instructed by either party to the other one – so that the negotiations are done in a fair and transparent manner, and the interest of clients can be protected. A vendor listed his property for […]

Estate agencies Company A and Company B are adjacent shops. One day, Agent A from Company A accompanied his client to view a property. They passed by Company B on the way to the site. The client stopped at Company B and took a glance at the advertisements in its window. Agent B of Company […]

Estate agencies and practitioners should always seek clients’ consent before using their personal data for direct marketing purposes. Mishandling a client’s personal data during estate agency work may be subject to disciplinary action by the Estate Agents Authority. In one case, a homebuyer instructed an agency not to use her personal data for direct marketing […]

Beware of property purchases with a history involving deeds of gift or assignments at nil consideration as they may involve risks. Estate agents should keep a watchful eye when handling such transactions and advise their clients to seek legal advice. In one case, an agent acted for both parties in a residential deal. Although the […]

Estate agents must provide services to clients in an honest manner and must not make misrepresentations that mislead clients. A client was interested in buying a home in the secondary market and appointed an estate agent to approach the seller. However, the agent told her the unit had been sold. He counterproposed a new residential […]

When reading a newspaper online, a director of a company came across a report about the transaction of a shop owned by the firm. The report said the shop had been sold and its transaction price was given. The source cited for the information was an estate agency. In fact, the company had not sold […]

An agent was appointed by a prospective purchaser to buy a property. Before the provisional agreement for sale and purchase was entered into, the agent noticed that the property had been mortgaged a number of times and that the vendor had not produced satisfactory evidence of his ability to pay off the mortgages. The property […]

An estate agent assured a prospective purchaser that she could definitely obtain a mortgage amounting to 80 percent of the purchase price, when persuading her to buy a flat at a new residential project. He also told the purchaser that the developer provided a 5 percent discount only to those who buy the flat through […]

An estate agent acted for both the tenant and the landlord in a rental deal. In the course of negotiation, the landlord told the agent that he would not accede to the tenant’s request for a dishwasher. Being eager to conclude the deal, the agent bought a dishwasher out of his own pocket for the […]

An estate agent acted for both the purchaser and the vendor in a commercial property transaction. Though the agent knew the cockloft inside the property involved unauthorised building works, he did not inform the purchaser of this. Nor did he check whether there was an entry regarding the works registered against the property by conducting […]