Rightmove: It’s difficult for estate agents to provide material information

The task of obtaining material information is more difficult than it appears for estate agents, Rightmove has warned.

The portal revealed in its written submissions to the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee’s inquiry into improving the homebuying process that while providing upfront material information is a positive step, agents are dependent on vendors.

Rightmove, which has recently added extra data fields to comply with parts B and C, as well as the original part A of Trading Standards’ material information requirements, revealed that as of 5 April 2024, the tenure of the property being sold was available on 94% of property listings as almost all sellers know the tenure of their home. 

Similarly, most sellers know their council tax band as well as how much they pay in ground rent and service charges on a leasehold property.

This is reflected in the percentage of listings where this information is provided, 69% for council tax, 60% for service charges and 59% for ground rent.

In contrast, in the fields where the information is more specialist and usually dealt with by conveyancers, the percentage of property listings with the information completed drops dramatically. 

Only 6% of leasehold property listings currently contain data about ground rent changes such as how often they increase and by how much.

Rightmove said:

“Until it is mandated that professionals are instructed prior to listing, it is unlikely we will see significant growth in the performance of these statistics because sellers simply do not know the answers to these complex questions or where to find them.”

The committee said it received 84 written submissions.

It held evidence sessions with industry executives this week.

 

Kindly shared by Estate Agent Today