CONSULTATION ON PROPOSED CHANGES TO LEGISLATION RELATING TO ESTATE AGENTS AND PROPERTY AGENTS

The Isle of Man Office of Fair Trading is currently considering making changes to legislation relating to estate agents and property agents in the Isle of Man. The purpose of this initial consultation exercise is to outline a number of issues and broad proposals pertaining to the registration and regulation of estate agents and to gather information, views and evidence from the public and other interested parties as part of the consultation process.

Electronic copies of the document and response form are available at https://www.gov.im/oft/consultations.gov

The consultation document and response form can also be obtained from the OFT by telephoning (01624) 686520.

The OFT is proposing to address the defective consumer protection and regulatory framework around property transactions by:-

(1) Promoting a small Bill to address those areas which are outside the scope of potential Orders under section 62A of the Consumer Protection Act 1991 by modifying the Estate Agents Act 1975 and repealing the Estate Agents Act 1999 (the latter Act is awaiting an Appointed Day Order).

(2) Making Orders under section 62A of the Consumer Protection Act 1991 applying to the Island; with suitable modifications, key pieces of UK consumer protection legislation around property transactions.

The proposed Estate Agents (Amendment) Bill would deal with the necessary changes to the Estate Agents Act 1975, to provide an effective and proportionate framework of regulation. The proposals in the Bill itself are designed to allow estate agents to continue to operate much as at present, whilst essentially modifying those areas where it is at best, unreasonably difficult, and at worst, virtually impossible, to be fully compliant with the law.

In parallel with the proposed Bill the OFT is proposing to use, for the first time, the new section 62A of the Consumer Protection Act 1991 (which was introduced by the Consumer Protection (Amendment) Act 2016). This will enable us to apply to the Island, with necessary modifications, two United Kingdom Statutory Instruments which provide consumers with effective redress in relation to both the purchase and sale of property and property rental.

Comments should be submitted to arrive no later than 5 pm on Friday 21st April 2017 to:

or can be submitted via an online form at https://survey02.gov.im/snapwebhost/s.asp?k=148905896461