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Important Information
This page contains important information that tells you about legislation governing estate agents, and about how Halifax Estate Agencies Limited conducts its business.
Any action or request for additional information conducted on this site does not constitute an agreement between Halifax Estate Agencies Limited and the user. If a site user wishes to sell or buy a home through us, any terms and conditions will be fully disclosed at that time.
Please note that if you enter into an agreement with two different estate agents you may become liable to pay fees to both of them.
The Property Misdescriptions Act 1991
The Ombudsman for Estate Agents
Text messaging, email and letters
The Property Misdescriptions Act 1991
The Property Misdescriptions Act is a major part of legislation affecting estate agency, which gives you added protection. The aim of the act is to ensure that everything said or written by an estate agent about a property is accurate, and not misleading.
The act is enforced by the Trading Standards Authority, and in Northern Ireland by the Department of Economic Development.
Halifax Estate Agencies Limited fully supports the principles of this legislation and takes great care to produce accurate and realistic property details.
The Ombudsman for Estate Agents
Halifax Estate Agencies Limited is a member of the Ombudsman for Estate Agents scheme.
Money Laundering is the way in which criminals conceal the origin and true ownership of the proceeds of their criminal activities so that it appears to come from a legitimate source. In order to combat this activity, all estate agents are now subject to Money Laundering Regulations and are required to obtain some additional personal details from customers who instruct us to sell a property on their behalf. Therefore, our staff need to carry out checks to verify the name and address details customers have provided; this may include the inspection of personal documents such as a passport, driving licence or a recent utility bill. We also need to collect customer's date of birth, country of residence and nationality.
To see how we use your information please read the privacy statement on our website halifax.co.uk or ask for a printed copy of this. We will use your information to contact you by mail, telephone, email, SMS or otherwise about other products and services that may be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive this information please advise your local branch or visit halifax.co.uk for details on how to opt out of this service.We endeavour to make our sales details accurate and reliable but they should not be relied upon as statements or representations of fact and they do not constitute any part of an offer or contract. The seller does not make any representations or give any warranty in relation to the property and we have no authority to do so on behalf of the seller. Services, fittings and equipment referred to in the sales details have not been tested (unless otherwise stated) and no warranty can be given as to their condition. We strongly recommend that all the information which we provide about the property is verified by yourself or your advisers. If there is any point of particular importance to you, we will be pleased to provide additional information or to make further enquiries.
If you are the seller, we'll explain our obligations to you under the law when preparing your property details, and ask you to approve and confirm the accuracy of those details, to ensure everything we say about your property is true. For this reason, we may not be able to include certain information unless you can back up the details with proof (eg planning permission documents), the precise nature of the tenure and evidence of works of improvements or alterations. We also ask you to tell us about any changes which affect your property details, when they happen.
Halifax Estate Agents, Halifax Property Services, Hobbs & Chambers, Donald Beale, Wellar Eggar, Frank Farr and Gale & Power are trading names of Halifax Estate Agencies Limited. Registered Office: Trinity Road, Halifax, West Yorkshire HX1 2RG. Registered in England No. 2045933.
An estate agent's primary responsibility at all times is to act in the best interests of the seller, while being fair to all prospective buyers.
This means that if you ask us to sell your home for you, we work for you in return for a fee and look after your best interests. To successfully sell your home, we need to attract buyers by offering them a good service and a fair deal. We help potential buyers as much as we can, so our sellers get a result and everyone is satisfied.
An estate agent must disclose any personal interest in selling or buying a property.
This rule protects both buyers and sellers, and ensures no underhand dealings can take place. Each Halifax Estate Agents employee is personally responsible for declaring, in writing, if they are related by family or business association to the buyer or seller of a property. That person must then have no further involvement in the property negotiations. We provide training to all our staff to remind them about their obligations.
If the sale of your property does not proceed, a fee will not be charged, but you may have to pay the disbursements incurred if your estate agency agreement provides for this.
We comply with the Solicitors' Introduction and Referral Code published by the Law Society, and any conveyancer to whom you may be referred is an independent professional from whom you will receive impartial and confidential advice. You are free to choose another solicitor.
Text messaging, email and letters
Registered potential buyers will be sent text messages, emails and/or Stop press letters (as applicable) with details of appropriate properties for sale, subject to our interpretation of their requirements and suitable property being available.
Our aim is to please - but we know that sometimes things go wrong. If you have a problem, we want to know. A member of staff will be happy to help either over the phone or at a branch. A copy of our complaints procedure is available on request. If you need further help, ring our Customer Helpline on 08457 25 35 19.
Complaints we cannot settle may be referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Ombudsman for Estate Agents depending on the nature of the complaint.
Calls to 0847 and 0845 numbers from BT landlines will cost a maximum of 4p per minute. The price of calls from other telephone companies will vary and you may want to check this with your own telephone company.
Next Steps
Branch Finder Call into your local branch of Halifax Estate Agents.
