The Minister for Justice Michael McDowell is to establish a new regulatory authority to monitor auctioneers and estate agents, it was announced today.
Following a review of the industry, the power of licensing estate agents, auctioneers, and property management agencies will now be transferred from the Court Service to the new authority which will be set up on an interim basis.
The Minister also announced a code of ethics, a complaints and redress system and greater protection of clients' moneys.
Much of the criticism has been levelled at estate agents. One provision of the authority will be to permit the new body inspect offers in a private treaty sale where consumers feel they are bidding against themselves and there will also be a new system of guide prices.
The body will be set up in Navan, Co Meath under the decentralisation policy.
Minister Michael McDowell said he believed the regulatory authority, which would licence agents and auctioneers and sanction them for breaches of ethics, was necessary due to a considerable level of concern among the public about certain selling practices.
The authority will also have powers to regulate, monitor and inspect their activities. It will be responsible for making consumers aware of their rights and offering them protection and redress when these are breached.
The minister said he would like to see the establishment of a paper trail in private treaty sales to ensure people were not bidding for properties against mystery bidders.
The Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV) welcomed the announcement. The IPAV chief executive, Liam O'Donnell, said there was a clear need 'to regulate licence holders who are not members of an established institute'.
O'Donnell, who was a member of the Review Body, said the report provided an opportunity for a constructive public debate on the auctioneering profession.
He said that clearly there is a need to regulate licence holders who are not members of an established institute and that the profession is currently governed by legislation dating back to 1947, which needs to be updated.
Mark FitzGerald, CEO of Sherry FitzGerald Group said greater regulation will provide the public with a greater degree of comfort when buying or selling property and that the vast majority of professionals in the industry have nothing to fear, but 'what it will provide is certainty against others who may have a lower standard of ethics'.
