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Online Estate Agents
Can you help me with these new 'National Association
of Estate Agents' web guidelines?
NAEA Internet Guidelines Review
The NAEA 's guidelines have just been released
and are reproduced below. Though there seems to be a large number
of areas and a lot of technical detail the solution to many of the
problems it raises are far simpler than you might expect. Almost
all sites currently fail the requirements so there is no better
time to gain a competitive advantage and its accompanying PR.
We would be happy to explain our suggested solutions
in more detail. These simple measures are designed to help:
- Minimising your time and expenditure satsifying
the requirements.
- Leveraging extra value for your marketing
from being responsive, secure and clear on your Internet site.
- Demistifying security and Internet technologies
to apply them to your property business.
Above all we offer easy, value for money solutions
to all your Internet related problems whether NAEA compliance or
the wider legal issues it raises.
Transparency in estate agency as a business
- The estate agent must have a physical business
address at which it can be contacted.
- The estate agent must provide easy to find
and clearly stated information on its legally registered name
or the name of its proprietors or partners, all names under which
it trades, its business address, an email address to which questions
and complaints can be sent and a telephone number together with
office hours during which that telephone line is open.
- The particulars of any accreditation to a
professional body or an accreditation scheme such as the Ombudsman
for Estate Agents and/or the National Approved Letting Scheme.
- If it is part of a franchise group
- The details of any tied arrangements with a
financial institution.
- The Estate Agent will ensure that, where it
sub-contracts the performance of certain activities covered by
these standards to a third party, sub-contracted work conforms
to these standards.
Transparency Solution
- A clear "Contact Us" page with a
link on every page of your website.
- Clear logos for all accreditations with links
to the accompanying website.
- A "Partners" page with full contact
details of partners such as Financial Services, Solicitors etc.
Honesty in obtaining property details
- All property adverts and details of sale will
be on those properties on which the agent holds confirmed written
instructions.
- Clients of properties displayed will have
been notified in writing that their property is on the Internet.
Honesty Solutions
- A comprehensive business audit checking in
and outgoing written material and your system for display/marketing
of properties.
Quality in the conduct of its business
- Where a property is ‘under offer subject
to contract’ sales information will be amended accordingly.
- Where a property is no longer available for
sale the agent will ensure that it is removed from display.
- Following exchange of contracts sales information
must be removed or amended as sold as soon as possible.
- When the sale has completed information must
be removed from display unless it is part of collective information
promoting properties sold by the agency.
- The agent will respond to enquiries and requests
for relevant information received by e-mail promptly.
Quality Solution
- A flexible web database that displays sales
status information.
- A web database system which changes instantly
an instruction changes.
- An archiving system for properties.
- An automatic emailing system which matches
clients to properties and can send standard letters and details
while you work.
- A fast reliable connection to the Internet
for easy emailing and instant incoming/outgoing email.
Accuracy of property information
- All displayed property information will be
accurate and up to date.
- Property particulars will be prepared to comply
with The Property Misdescriptions Act 1991 and accord with the
Advertising Standards Code of Practice.
- The estate agent will use reasonable endeavours
to ensure that all property particulars passed on to the property
portal conform to the provisions of statutory regulations relating
to the sale or letting of property as from time to time may be
in effect.
- The estate agent will take reasonable steps
to ensure that all content passed to the property portal and consumer
is of a decent and inoffensive nature.
- The estate agent will take responsibility
for all accuracy and compliance issues except where the property
portal has indicated in writing otherwise or has failed to honour
its obligations under other parts of these guidelines in a manner
which has directly led to a failure to display accurate property
information or be compliant.
- In dealings with property portals, the estate
agent will take ownership for the accuracy of information sent
to the property portal, whether it does so itself or via a third
party such as a software company.
Accuracy Solution
Proper, printable property details online including
your header and footer and the Property Misdescriptions Act disclaimers.
Respect for the privacy and security of estate agents’ property
and other users data
- The estate agent will display on its web site
its privacy policy which should include:
- what information is collected
- the specific purpose for which the information
may be used
- whether and for what purpose the information
may be disclosed to other parties
- a contact point for Data Protection Act
enquires
- The estate agent will have available a data
security policy signed by senior management describing how information
is secured and procedures to ensure the policy is conformed to.
- The estate agent will ensure that information
supplied by the user is stored securely, including physical security,
control of access to systems, back up and recovery of information
and use of virus checkers.
- The estate agent will ensure that the user
is able to change their personal details and requirements on-
line.
- The estate agent will put in place suitable
authentication processes to secure the user’s access to data.
- The estate agent will ensure that the user
can exclude themselves from direct mailings or other unsolicited
contact by the estate agent or effected by the estate agent on
behalf of others.
- The estate agent will ensure that all data
is obtained, stored and managed in compliance with the Data Protection
Act.
- The estate agent will undertake to keep any
passwords supplied by the property portal secret and to change
such passwords from time to time as requested by the property
portal.
- The estate agent will ensure that all data
passed to it from a property portal will be stored and managed
in compliance with the Data Protection Act.
Privacy and Security Solution
- A cheap, effective Privacy and Data Protection
policy written for your company and displayed prominently.
- A free test and audit of internal data security,
antiviral protection and backup procedures.
- An effective web database which allows the
public to login to a secure server to change and manage
their requirements.
- Linking your web property and web registration
databases together.
Taking of payments from users via an estate agent’s web site
- Where an estate agent’s web site accepts
payment for goods or services via its web site it should conform
to and be accredited to a recognised web accreditation service.
Payment Solutions
- Connecting your website to a bank approved
Payment Solutions Provider such as Netbanx or Worldpay.
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