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Press Release 17-02-2010
CEI welcomes the publication of the European standard for services of real estate agents
The EN 15733 serves the protection of consumers throughout Europe and improvement in standards of service provision by real estate agents
The first uniform, Europe-wide standard for the services of real estate agents has now been published. The European standard for real estate agent services, the EN 15733 Services of real estate agents - Requirements for the provision of services of real estate agents, was published by the European Committee for Standardisation (the CEN) at the end of January.
This concludes the four years of work on this standard. Manuel Negrao, President of CEI, the European Confederation of Real Estate Agents ( <http://www.webcei.com/> www.webcei.com), welcomes the publication of this standard. "Everyone who has contributed to the work on the development of this standard has shared the same interest: to improve the quality of real estate agents' services in Europe. As an amalgamation of national real estate agents associations in Europe, we have been working consistently in this improvement in the quality of services." This newly published standard filled a gap, he said, for both estate agents and consumers. Con! sumers throughout Europe could use this standard as a reference when they engaged the services of real estate agents. Manuel Negrao went on to say that, "with the EN 15733, real estate agents and consumers in Europe now have consistent foundations to work on."
The European standard for real estate agent services contains regulations for the relationship between estate agents and their customers. The standard sets out the contents of real estate agents' contracts, the information to be received from them by the buyer and purchaser of a property, as well as the general obligations between customers and real estate agents. Manuel Negrao said that, "we have wrestled for a long time with the many countries involved about real estate agents' qualifications and the different national regulations of all the countries involved had to be taken into account".
Altogether 31 countries have contributed to the development of the European standard for real estate agent's services. The development of the standard was under the direction of the European Committee for Standardisation (the CEN). Work on the contents and specialist knowledge was co-opted into the process by representatives of the national real estate agents associations. The interests of consumers were discerned through a consumer protection organisation at both national and European level. Manuel Negrao explained that, "in this way, all the eligible interests of consumers could be combined with the specialist circumstances of the property market in the new European standard. In the process, both sides had to lower their sights. Some of the perceptions on the part of the estate agents had to take just as much second place as some of the suggestions from the European consumer protection federation." He went on to say that, in the end, the stand! ard had been accepted by the 31 countries involved by an overwhelming majority of almost 96%. The voting arrangements within the CEN followed the proportion of votes in the EU, and that showed a high degree of agreement with the standard.
For the first time, in the EN 15733, real estate agents in Europe have created a uniform set of regulations for carrying out their services. Real estate agents' insurance obligations, a management system for customer complaints, use of contracts with prescribed content, information obligations towards customers etc., all of these are the contents of the standard.
"We know that this European standard is the beginning of standardisation of real estate agents' services across all national boundaries in Europe", said Andre Groot, Chairman of the Working Committee at CEN, who managed the EN 15733. It is extraordinary that countries with considerable statutory standards for the estate agents' profession and countries without any legal requirements for real estate agents were successfully able to agree on this European standard." Many contradictory opinions were discussed over the four years of work on the standard. "There's one thing that the standard cannot achieve", said Andre Groot. "The standard cannot eliminate the very different national statutory regulations for real estate agents and review the regulation of admission to the profession. The standard also cannot standardise the levels of commission paid in the countries in Europe. But Andre Groot went on to say that, "the standard is a completely new se! t of guidelines for consumers and estate agents in their dealings with one another".
In the next stage the EN 15733 will be published by the national standards institutes as a national standard and, in this way, all the European member states will have a standard with the same character. The application of the standard is voluntary for real estate agents. The CEN or the national standards institutes cannot make the EN 15733 obligatory. "If a real estate agent states that their work is subject to the EN 15733 standard, however, then a consumer can demand the rights as set out in the standard, with respect to information, for example", Andre Groot explains.
"As the European Confederation of real estate agents, we at the CEI have a great interest in as many estate agents as possible in Europe applying the EN 15733 standard. Four years ago the CEI proposed the drawing up of this European standard at the European Committee for Standardisation. This is why we welcome the conclusion of this standard and call upon the European real estate agents to use the standard", Manuel Negrao explained. At the same time Manuel Negrao outlined the next steps to be taken in the implementation of the standard in Europe. "We know that this standard is the beginning. Together with our partner association, CEPI, we are working towards further improvements to the standard as set out in the EN 15733. We have set up a working group whose job it is to set out the qualification demands more precisely for real estate agents who want to work under the EN 15733 standard. At this stage, from the point of view of the European group! s representing the interests of the real estate agents, the EN 15733 is still not sufficiently well developed", Manuel Negrao went on to say. In other places, however, the standard is very clear. "In a marginal note the EN 15733 recommends that, in order to avoid disagreements, the real estate agent and the customer should agree on concluding a contract where the real estate agent is commissioned exclusively by the customer. This shows that the standard has made some very decisive statements about the relationship between the parties involved", Manuel Negrao explains.
The standard sets out that, both private and commercial customers come within the remit of the EN 15733. For the EN 15733 to be totally effective and for it to be applied between customers and estate agents, the implementation of the standard still needs to become a national service provision standard. The CEI expects this process to be concluded by the end of June 2010. In May/June 2010 the CEI European Association of Real Estate Agents will be carrying out an introduction to the EN 15733 at conferences in the various countries, together with the national real estate agents' associations.
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Contact: Manuel Negrao, CEI President Email:
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