Agency staff face unfair fallout from Panorama documentary – warning

The fallout from Panorama’s investigation into conditional selling at Connells and overvaluing at Purplebricks has continued, with warnings that frontline staff will be impacted while corporate executives stay hidden.

Both Connells and Purplebricks have denied the claims in the investigation but Ian Macbeth, managing director of agency brand Avocado Property, warned that it is those at the coalface now facing the consequences.

“While corporate executives prepare their responses, it is the customer-facing estate agents—negotiators, valuers, and consultants—who will be left to deal with the consequences of institutional decisions they never made.

Reflecting on his own experience of a similar incident at a different agency which was reported earlier in his career, he said: “In the main, we probably didn’t really want to do it.

“We knew it was morally incorrect, but we would face disciplinaries if we didn’t follow what was being driven from the top”.

Macbeth warned that failure to conform risks job security, adding:

“The estate agency industry has long operated on a high-pressure sales model, where staff are trained to follow strict scripts and upsell services to meet rigid targets. 

“Staff aren’t rogue agents – they’re following instructions, trying to earn a living, and often questioning the ethics of what they’re told to do. But when the PR storm hits, it’s the people on the ground who face the anger and scrutiny—while senior management retreats to boardrooms.”

As media coverage intensifies, public trust in estate agents is taking another battering, he warned.

Macbeth said: 

“You sling mud at one and everybody gets covered.

“The story might name Connells and Purplebricks, but the public reads ‘estate agents’, and that paints us all with the same brush.

“This reputational contagion is not just damaging—it’s demoralising.

“The staff are just following instructions. They’re the ones who are going to have to deal with this, and it’s their commission, their stress, their mental health that will be hit.

“Everyone else just disappears into the background and waits for it to blow over.”

Nathan Emerson, chief executive of Propertymark, said:

Agents must provide a full duty of care and ensure impartiality to all participants throughout the entire sales and transactional process. 

He added: “Buyers and sellers must have freedom to choose products and services that meet their needs and preferences.

“It is important that agents display an understanding of the impact of key factors which interact with the buying and selling process. This includes areas such as contract law, conveyancing, and mortgage application processes.

“Agents must adhere to the terms of undertaking full due diligence on all parties such as compliance, anti-money laundering regulations, proof of funds and the ability to purchase. They can offer to introduce services which provide appropriate advice and products, but there must be full transparency and absolutely no conflict of interest.

“Due to continuous progression within many areas of law, the housing sector has far greater levels of consumer protection in place than at any point previously, and these standards are constantly evaluated and evolved to ensure they remain fit for purpose.  

“Should anyone feel a service offered to them might fall short on standards – they can raise a case with organisations such as Trading Standards, The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme as well as the organisations own internal complaints procedures. In addition, if the agent is a member of a professional body such as Propertymark, they may have additional options for remedy too.”

Kindly shared by EstateAgentTODAY Image courtesy of Adobe