By: Michael O’FarrellÂ
Investigations Editor
THE new regulator for estate agents (pictured right) is preparing to prosecute 30 property negotiators who have been operating illegally and has received extra resources to investigate 350 complaints received since last year.
An undercover investigation by the Irish Mail on Sunday has established that two agents – now also included in the regulator’s investigation – have been negotiating sales in Dublin despite having no license as required by law. A new licensing regime for estate agents was introduced by the Government in 2012 to crack down on the kind of irregular practices that contributed to Ireland’s property bubble.
The MoS has established that dozens of staff in various estate agents are operating illegally throughout the country, and a survey of the most high-profile estate agents revealed that more than half have adverts wrongly listing staff as negotiators. The revelation comes just as the property market begins to recover – meaning that there is once again increasing scope for practices such as gazumping and using nonexistent bidders to inflate prices. There is no suggestion that any of the firms or individuals mentioned have engaged in such practices.
In July 2012 a new licensing regime for estate agents was introduced to prevent such practices, which were forcing consumers to pay higher prices. Everyone licensed to provide property services is now listed in a publicly available register maintained by the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA).
Those not registered are not permitted to provide property services or act as estate agents and face severe penalties for doing so.
The PSRA can suspend or revoke a licence for serious offences. It can levy fines of up to €250,000.
But the MoS has confirmed that more than 30 individuals working in estate agents – who either had their application refused or never applied to be on the register – continue to operate.
In addition, 350 complaints about estate agents – from the frivolous to the criminal – have been received by the PSRA.
Typically, applications to the PSRA are rejected if an estate agent is judged to have insufficient qualifications, a criminal conviction, insufficient insurance arrangements or unsatisfactory tax affairs.
But in the absence of a stringent inspection regime there is mounting evidence that many of those forbidden from practising as estate agents continue to trade.
Last night the chief executive of the PSRA, Tom Lynch, said: ‘Our main concern is to ensure that the consumer is protected, that money won’t be done away with or that they won’t be defrauded in any way.’ ‘As of now there are about 30 cases that I’m aware of, that are trading without licences and we will investigate them and once we are satisfied that they are trading without a licence we will prosecute them.
‘Make no mistake about that. People better know very, very quickly that from here on the gloves are off.’ Mr Lynch said he had this week received six additional staff ‘for the sole purpose of investigations and prosecutions’. There were already a number of cases involving the improper conduct of licensed estate agents set aside for prosecution. There is no suggestion that any of the firms mentioned are among them.
‘Where they are in breach of the Act itself – operating without a licence – we can bring these case to court ourselves in a summary prosecution or in situations of a more grievous nature we can bring a case on indictment in which we prosecute through the DPP. We have one such case at present.’ ‘We all know of a few firms I’m afraid that are operating without a licence,’ said Brendan Bowe from Bowe Property in Ballincollig, Co. Cork.
‘It’s particularly prevalent among lettings firms but certainly also among our own industry. I’m not surprised to hear of firms that haven’t gone through the process.’ Enda McGuane, managing director of Winters Property Management in Limerick, called for the regulator to get tough. ‘My problem is there are people who are not licensed and they’re doing nothing about it,’ he said.
‘We would welcome action very strongly because as far as we’re concerned, if you’re not licensed you should not be in the business.’ That sentiment was echoed by Shane Desmond, a director of Mason Estates in Dundrum. ‘It does frustrate us from an agent’s point of view when we see certain firms getting business and we know there’s a doubt in terms of the licensing [of individual staff],’ he said.
In some cases, companies that have registered with the PSRA are flouting the law by using individual agents with no licence to negotiate and complete sales or lettings. In this way a firm can appear to be above board but still flout the law. One such company is Castle Estate Agents Ltd, a Dublin practice.
The vendors of three properties currently for sale claim that two of the company’s agents – David Scally and Michael O’Flaherty – acted as property negotiators throughout the purchase without being registered.
Mr Lynch of the PSRA said he had launched an investigation into Castle. Castle Estate Agents said: ‘We believe that they have always acted within the guidelines given to us by the PSRA. A licensed member of staff has always been in charge of both Michael O’Flaherty and David Scally and has overlooked all their work.’ The authority has issued 6,091 licences since July 2012. These must be renewed on an annual basis.
MORE THAN HALF OF FIRMS HAVE UNREGISTERED “NEGOTIATORS”.
AN IRISH Mail On Sunday survey of estate agents across the country has found that many firms list employees as property negotiators even though the individuals concerned appear to be unlicensed and not permitted to provide the service.
At best, the results could mean there is a certain degree of confusion and poor administrative practices within the industry.
At worst, the findings could be an indication that some auctioneers are flouting the law. We surveyed a random sample of 20 prominent estate agents to check whether the property negotiators they listed on their public daft.ie profile had valid licences from the PSRA.
In all, 11 (55%) of the companies or branches surveyed had – inadvertently or otherwise – listed employees as negotiators who were not on the PRSA register. These included branches of firms such as Sherry FitzGerald in Galway and Limerick,
DNG in Glanmire, Co. Cork, Mason Estates in Dundrum, Property Team in Portmarnock, Lindsey in Cork’s South Mall, Bowe Property in Ballincollig, Property Partners in Limerick’s O’Connell Avenue, Remax in Limerick’s O’Connell St and Coldwell Banker in Santry.
Shane Desmond, a director of Mason Estates, said the firm had simply neglected to update its daft profile after an employee left two years ago but would now do so immediately. Brendan Bowe, from Bowe property in Ballincollig, Co. Cork, said he had no other place to list his receptionist on the Daft site other than under the negotiator tag.
A spokesman for Lindsey said that the negotiator concerned had applied and a licence was pending.
Remax Limerick said the person concerned in their case was an administrator who had left the firm.
Brian O’Dwyer of Property Partners Limerick said he did not know why the negotiator did not appear to be on the register and said he would pursue the issue.
A spokesman for Sherry FitzGerald said the company was happy that none of the individuals concerned were out providing property services. They were either administrative staff or former staff wrongly listed as negotiators.
Darren Kelly of Property Team in Portmarnock said the person listed had left the company.
