As part of National Trading Standards (NTS) requirements around accurate pricing, we’re making changes that mean we’ll no longer display Price on Application (POA) on listings. Instead, we’ll show the supplied price.

The changes will take effect from around 15th August.

We wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for making sure your listings comply with the new regulations.

National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team (NTSELAT) has today published its opinion that the use of ‘POA’ or ‘price on application’ in property listings (principally sales listings) contravenes consumer protection legislation.

NTSELAT’s opinion is that the use of ‘POA’ or ‘price on application’ in relation to a listing on a property portal or an agent website is likely to be misleading as it withholds – or in some cases masks – the asking price from consumers. The property’s price is information which the average consumer needs in order to make an informed transactional decision, such as to make enquiries about the property, conduct further research or arrange a viewing.

Overview

To support you in the advertising and marketing of property, the National Trading Standards Estate & Letting Agency Team established a steering group made up of various industry stakeholders – redress schemes, property portals, government, and professional bodies representing agents. The group aims to improve the provision of material information in property listings, and part of this process involves creating a framework of information disclosure with the legal requirements of the CPRs.

Three stages of material information disclosure

Information that, regardless of outcome, is always considered material for all properties regardless of location. This information generally involves unavoidable costs that will be incurred by the occupier regardless of the use of the property.

Information that must be established for all properties. It applies mainly to utilities (and similar), where non-standard features would affect someone’s decision to look any further at that property.

Additional material information that may or may not need to be established, depending on whether the property is affected or impacted by the information. Applies to properties affected by the issue itself because of, for example, the location of the property.

The relevant data fields will start to appear on portals from February 2022. By the end of May 2022, this information will be required as standard on all property listings.

Running I Am The Agent property business legally - , if you leave a field empty, this will be flagged on the listing and could be removed.

National Trading Standards wants all material information to be mandatory on property listings once all three phases of the project are complete.

You will need to include all the required information before it is listed on I Am The Agent property portal. The Government has reiterated the importance of this project in its recent White Paper, Levelling Up the United Kingdom and signalled that legislation may follow.

Tenure (applicable to sales listings only)

• If Freehold • disclose as ‘freehold’
• If Leasehold • disclose as ‘leasehold’
• Current ground rent and any review period
• Current service charge information and any review period
• Length of lease If Shared ownership, disclose
• details of share being sold, and any additional liabilities or obligations
• If Commonhold, disclose
• Details of rights and obligations that apply between the unit holders, and between the unit holders and the commonhold association
• Council Tax (England, Wales & Scotland), or Rates (Northern Ireland) - disclose
• Council tax band (E, W & S)
• Rates payable (NI)
• Price or Rent For lettings, disclose
• The monthly rent, and
• Any deposit payable For sales, disclose
• The price expressed as a single amount (Note: Displaying the selling price, although not prescribed by law, is considered to be material information – its omission would be a breach of the CPRs if it affected the transactional decision of the average consumer.