Gibraltar Fair Trade Bill 2015

Last month (and some prior months) I waxed lyrical about the need for some regulation of the estate agent industry in Gibraltar. I have written various pieces in this magazine of the flaws in our industry and the lack of consumer protection generally in the property market. One of my recommendations was to ensure that any client money should be held separately from the estate agent’s own money ie in a client account. It’s something that we do at Chesterton as a matter of course and I am sure other reputable agents do as well, despite there being no current law or regulation to do so. However, just as many agents do, there are many agents do not. And that puts landlord and tenant monies at risk.

I was therefore delighted to read the full draft of the forthcoming Gibraltar Fair Trade Bill 2015 which includesGibraltar estate agents amongst the business sectors which will be governed by this Bill.

Clause 66(2) states: “Any person carrying on a business or trade of a kind specified in Schedule 3 [this includes estate agents] which involves the handling of client money or the taking of deposits on behalf of clients must have a separate client account for such purpose.”

Clause 97(2) adds further: “Any category listed in Schedule 3 whose business or trade involves handling client monies or holding financial deposits of any kind for clients shall be required to evidence to the Trade Licensing Authority that such business or trade meets the trading standards conditions set by the TLA in this regard as set out on the TLA’s online portal.”

I would hope that the new Office of Fair Trading will also look at other areas of poor conduct within our industry, some examples of which were included in my article last month.

But for now, I am just happy that this Bill, which will become law later in the year, is the start of a more professional property industry, which is to everyone’s benefit.