The Office of Fair Trading is reminding agents that it will be compulsory to belong to the register by the end of January 2010. Any agent who is not registered by then will be operating illegally.
The Money Laundering Regulations, which came into force on December 15, 2007 also apply to buyers' agents and relocation agents. Failure to register whilst carrying on business as an estate agent could result in prosecution and jail.
As the actual registration process will take around 45 days, the OFT is asking agents to apply to join the register as soon as it is open on July 31 and at least by the end of November as it expects a mad rush at the end of the year.
Agents will have to pay £115 per office, capped at £2,300 for a firm with 20 or more branches. There will be an annual fee payable after that, although the actual amount has yet to be decided.
While anti-money laundering laws do not include letting agents, the OFT is also warning that they do apply to letting agents under certain circumstances. If a letting agent deals in premium leases where companies 'purchase' leases for, usually, one or two years on behalf of their employees then they will need to register. This particular method of renting is popular with corporates such as American banks relocating personnel on assignments to the UK.
Money laundering regulations will also apply to letting agents who accept double instructions where the landlord/seller instructs them to market the property for sale or for rent.
Letting agents are also bound by the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 which means that if they have suspicions about a landlord or tenant who might be money laundering, they have a legal duty to report those suspicions.
