Guidance Notes: Unfair Commercial Practices and Material Information for Estate and Lettings Agents

This Guidance Notes: Guidance Notes:  Unfair Commercial Practices and Material Information for Estate and Lettings Agents provides and overview of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (“the Act”) and its impact on Estate and Lettings Agents.

The Act replaces the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (“CPRs”).  Most of the CPRs are reinstated in the Act and CPRs will still apply to unfair commercial practices conducted before 6 April 2025.

While the underlying principles of fairness remain consistent with CPRs, the Act introduces clearer and more structured rules on what constitutes unfair commercial practices such as misleading actions and omissions, banned practices and the disclosure of material information in property listings. It also includes stricter enforcement measures. 

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the primary enforcer of the new legislations and have enhanced powers to impose civil penalties of up to £300,000.00 or 10% of global turnover. 

Under the Act omitting material information – that is key information a consumer needs to make an informed transactional decision – is now automatically considered an unfair commercial practice, regardless of whether the omission affects the consumers decision. This is a significant change from previous regulations where the impact on the consumer’s decision was a factor in determining unfairness. 

Please note that previous guidance on material information issued by The National Trading Standards Estate and Lettings Agency Team (NTSELAT) has been withdrawn in light of the new legislative changes. 

This Guidance Note provides a brief overview of the following:

• Transaction Decisions
• Unfair Commercial Practices 
• Practices Considered to be unfair
• Banned Practices
• Material Information and the Invitation to Purchase 
• Promotion of Unfair Commercial Practices in a Code of Conduct
• Practices that are unfair if they are likely to cause consumers to take a “different transactional decision”
• Misleading actions 
• Misleading omissions
• Aggressive practices
• Professional diligence 
• Enforcement

The Guidance Notes are not intended to be legal advice and lettings agents should still consult the official government guidance and new legislation which can be found here - CMA 207 Unfair commercial practices; What businesses need to know about unfair commercial practices - GOV.UK 

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