united-kingdom real-estate
Estate Agents must pass on all offers made on a house - UK Legislation
<p>I rang up an estate agent to make an offer on a house and was told they were not going to pass this on to the seller because there were already 3 offers on the table.</p>
<p>I am aware that under UK Law estate agent must pass on all offers made on the property right up until the exchange of contracts.</p>
<p>I keep seeing reference to this being in the Estate Agents Act 1979, but for the life I cannot find it in there. Does anyone know the specific section that covers this requirement.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/38/section/3?timeline=false" rel="noreferrer">s.3 of the Estate Agents Act 1979</a> allows for &quot;<em>Orders prohibiting unfit persons from doing estate agency work</em>&quot; if, for example, contrary to section s.3(1)(d) they are found to have</p>
<blockquote>
<p>...engaged in a practice which, in relation to estate agency work, has been declared undesirable by an order made by the Secretary of State.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One such practice declared undesirable by the Secretary of State is at <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1991/1032/schedule/3/paragraph/2/made" rel="noreferrer">paragraph 2 of Schedule 3 of the Estate Agents (Undesirable Practices) (No. 2) Order 1991</a>
:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The failure by an estate agent to forward to his client promptly and in writing accurate details (<strong>other than those of a description which the client has indicated in writing he does not wish to receive</strong>) of any offer the estate agent has received from a prospective purchaser inrespect of an interest in the land.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>but note the emboldened caveat which may explain why certain details are not always passed on.</p>

<p>Section 3 of that Act, together with the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and the Estate Agents (Specified Offences) (No. 2) Order 1991.</p>
<p>The 2008 Regulations are about protecting the public from unscrupulous trading practices in general, including various examples of misleading by omitting information. The 1991 Order, as amended, makes that a designated offence for Section 3(a)(i)(iii) of the 1979 Act.</p>
<p>That means that the &quot;lead enforcement authority&quot; could impose various professional sanctions. That authority is the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team, housed (for obscure local government reasons) within Powys County Council but with a nationwide remit. In their guidance for estate agents, linked from <a href="https://www.propertymark.co.uk/resource/ntselat-guidance-on-property-sales-and-lettings.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.propertymark.co.uk/resource/ntselat-guidance-on-property-sales-and-lettings.html</a>, they list not passing on offers as an example of a misleading omission.
(But the seller may have given them instructions not to bother passing on non-competitive offers, for example, which would be OK.)</p>
