GLASGOW online estate agency Walker Wylie has added its voice to calls for regulation of estate agents to be passed to the Scottish Parliament.
Under current arrangements estate agents across the UK are regulated by Powys County Council, which assesses whether an individual or business is fit to operate under the terms of the Estate Agents Act 1979.
However, Scottish solicitors who carry out estate agency work are regulated by the Law Society of Scotland, which has been lobbying since 2015 for regulation of the entire sector to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
Walker Wylie founders Stuart Wylie and Barry Walker agree, noting that the UK-wide system of oversight for estate agents does not account for differences between the property markets north and south of the Border.
“At the moment we have legal services for conveyancing regulated from Holyrood and estate agency services regulated by Westminster, which creates unnecessary bureaucracy, higher costs for consumers and more confusion for everyone,” Wylie said. “Giving the Scottish Parliament control over estate agents would allow the same regulator to regulate both the sales and the legal side of the industry, providing consumers with a less expensive and more consistent service.”
Powys County Council took over regulatory duties from the Office of Fair Trading in 2014 after pitching for the role.
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