Estate Agents Act 1979
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1979 c. 38 |
| Year | 1979 |
Estate Agents Act 1979
1979 CHAPTER 38
An Act to make provision with respect to the carrying on of and to persons who carry on, certain activities in connection with the disposal and acquisition of interests in land; and for purposes connected therewith.
[4th April 1979]
B e it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Application of Act
1 Estate agency work.
(1) This Act applies, subject to subsections (2) to (4) below to things done by any person in the course of a business (including a business in which he is employed) pursuant to instructions received from another person (in this section referred to as ‘the client’) who wishes to dispose of or acquire an interest in land—
( a ) for the purpose of, or with a view to, effecting the introduction to the client of a third person who wishes to acquire or, as the case may be, dispose of such an interest; and
( b ) after such an introduction has been effected in the course of that business, for the purpose of securing the disposal or, as the case may be, the acquisition of that interest;
and in this Act the expression ‘estate agency work’ refers to things done as mentioned above to which this Act applies.
(2) This Act does not apply to things done—
( a ) in the course of his profession by a practising solicitor or a person employed by him; or
( b ) in the course of credit brokerage, within the meaning of the Consumer Credit Act 1974; or
( c ) in the course of insurance brokerage by a person who is for the time being registered under section 2, or enrolled under section 4, of the Insurance Brokers (Registration) Act 1977; or
( d ) in the course of carrying out any survey or valuation pursuant to a contract which is distinct from that under which other things falling within subsection (1) above are done; or
( e ) in connection with applications and other matters arising under the Town and Country Planning Act 1971 or the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1972 or the Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1972.
(3) This Act does not apply to things done by any person—
( a ) pursuant to instructions received by him in the course of his employment in relation to an interest in land if his employer is the person who, on his own behalf, wishes to dispose of or acquire that interest; or
( b ) in relation to any interest in any property if the property is subject to a mortgage and he is the receiver of the income of it; or
( c ) in relation to a present, prospective or former employee of his or of any person by whom he also is employed if the things are done by reason of the employment (whether past, present or future).
(4) This Act does not apply to the publication of advertisements or the dissemination of information by a person who does no other acts which fall within subsection (1) above.
(5) In this section—
( a ) ‘practising solicitor’ means, except in Scotland, a solicitor who is qualified to act as such under section 1 of the Solicitors Act 1974 or Article 4 of the Solicitors (Northern Ireland) Order 1976, and in Scotland includes a firm of practising solicitors;
( b ) ‘mortgage’ includes a debenture and any other charge on property for securing money or money's worth; and
( c ) any reference to employment is a reference to employment under a contract of employment.
2 Interests in land.
(1) Subject to subsection (3) below, any reference in this Act to disposing of an interest in land is a reference to—
( a ) transferring a legal estate in fee simple absolute in possession; or
( b ) transferring or creating, elsewhere than in Scotland, a lease which, by reason of the level of the rent, the length of the term or both, has a capital value which may be lawfully realised on the open market; or
( c ) transferring or creating in Scotland any estate or interest in land which is capable of being owned or held as a separate interest and to which a title may be recorded in the Register of Sasines;
and any reference to acquiring an interest in land shall be construed accordingly.
(2) In subsection (1)( b ) above the expression ‘lease’ includes the rights and obligations arising under an agreement to grant a lease.
(3) Notwithstanding anything in subsections (1) and (2) above, references in this Act to disposing of an interest in land do not extend to disposing of—
( a ) the interest of a creditor whose debt is secured by way of a mortgage or charge of any kind over land or an agreement for any such mortgage or charge; or
( b ) in Scotland, the interest of a creditor in a heritable security as defined in section 9(8) of the Conveyancing and Feudal Reform (Scotland) Act 1970.
Orders by Director General of Fair Trading
3 Orders prohibiting unfit persons from doing estate agency work.
(1) The power of the Director General of Fair Trading (in this Act referred to as ‘the Director’) to make an order under this section with respect to any person shall not be exercisable unless the Director is satisfied that that person—
( a ) has been convicted of—
(i) an offence involving fraud or other dishonesty or violence, or
(ii) an offence under any provision of this Act, other than section 10(6), section 22(3) or section 23(4), or
(iii) any other offence which, at the time it was committed, was specified for the purposes of this section by an order made by the Secretary of State; or
( b ) has committed discrimination in the course of estate agency work; or
( c ) has failed to comply with any obligation imposed on him under any of sections 15 and 18 to 21 below; or
( d ) has engaged in a practice which, in relation to estate agency work, has been declared undesirable by an order made by the Secretary of State;
and the provisions of Schedule 1 to the Act shall have effect for supplementing paragraphs ( a ) and ( b ) above.
(2) Subject to subsection (1) above, if the Director is satisfied that any person is unfit to carry on estate agency work generally or of a particular description he may make an order prohibiting that person—
( a ) from doing any estate agency work at all; or
( b ) from doing estate agency work of a description specified in the order;
and in determining whether a person is so unfit the Director may, in addition to taking account of any matters falling within subsection (1) above, also take account of whether, in the course of estate agency work or any other business activity, that person has engaged in any practice which involves breaches of a duty owed by virtue of any enactment, contract or rule of law and which is material to his fitness to carry on estate agency work.
(3) For the purposes of paragraphs ( c ) and ( d ) of subsection (1) above,—
( a ) anything done by a person in the course of his employment shall be treated as done by his employer as well as by him, whether or not it was done with the employer's knowledge or approval, unless the employer shows that he took such steps as were reasonably practicable to prevent the employee from doing that act, or from doing in the course of his employment acts of that description; and
( b ) anything done by a person as agent for another person with the authority (whether express or implied, and whether precedent or subsequent) of that person shall be treated as done by that other person as well as by him; and
( c ) anything done by a business associate of a person shall be treated as done by that person as well, unless he can show that the act was done without his connivance or consent.
(4) In an order under this section the Director shall specify as the grounds for the order those matters falling within paragraphs ( a ) to ( d ) of subsection (1) above as to which he is satisfied and on which, accordingly, he relies to give him power to make the order.
(5) If the Director considers it appropriate, he may in an order under this section limit the scope of the prohibition imposed by the order to a particular part of or area within the United Kingdom.
(6) An order under paragraph ( a )(iii) or paragraph ( d ) of subsection (1) above—
( a ) shall be made by statutory instrument;
( b ) shall be laid before Parliament after being made; and
( c ) shall cease to have effect (without prejudice to anything previously done in reliance on the order) after the expiry of the period of twenty-eight days beginning with the date on which it was made unless within that period it has been approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.
(7) In reckoning for the purposes of subsection (6)( c ) above any period of twenty-eight days, no account shall be taken of any period during which Parliament is dissolved or...
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