The short version
- Before you instruct an agent, check four free official registers: their redress scheme, HMRC's anti-money laundering register, Companies House and the UK Sanctions List.
- By law, the agent must give you its fees, and when you'd have to pay them, in writing before you're committed. Read whether it asks for sole agency or sole selling rights: they decide when you pay.
- Then judge new homes experience: selling off plan, the New Homes Quality Code, and seeing sales through to completion.
Four checks on the official registers
Each check is free, takes a few minutes and can be done before you meet the agent. Check the company, and the people behind it.
Every estate agent dealing with residential property in the UK must belong to an approved redress scheme, which handles complaints from buyers and sellers. Ask which scheme they belong to, usually The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme, and confirm it with the scheme itself, not just from a logo on the agent's website.
Estate agency businesses must register with HMRC for anti-money laundering supervision. Trading while not registered is a criminal offence. HMRC publishes its Supervised Business Register on GOV.UK as a spreadsheet you can search by name. A new registration can take time to appear, and a business can be listed under another business's registration, so if you can't find the agent, ask for their registration number. HMRC points out that being registered isn't an endorsement.
Look the company up on Companies House. Check it's active, its accounts and confirmation statement are up to date, and who its directors are. You can also search the register of disqualified company directors.
Search the company and its directors on the UK Sanctions List. Since 28 January 2026, it has been the only official list of UK sanctions designations. It's worth doing for every agent, and especially one with overseas owners or partners.
Read the terms before you sign
Under the Estate Agents Act 1979 and the regulations made under it, the agent must give you its terms in writing before you're committed to paying anything. They must set out:
- when you become liable to pay the agent;
- the agent's fee, or how it will be worked out;
- any other payments, such as marketing costs, and when they're due.
Three terms change when you pay. If the agent uses them, it must explain them in its terms, in wording the regulations set out:
- Sole selling rights. You pay the agent if contracts are exchanged during the agreement, even with a buyer you or another agent found. You also pay if, after it ends, you exchange with a buyer the agent introduced or negotiated with during it.
- Sole agency. You pay the agent if contracts are exchanged, at any time, with a buyer the agent introduced or negotiated with during the agency, or with a buyer another agent introduced during it. A buyer you find yourself isn't included.
- Ready, willing and able purchaser. Once the agent introduces a buyer who is prepared and able to exchange, in line with your instructions, you owe the fee even if you then withdraw and contracts are never exchanged.
On a development, sole selling rights is the one to watch: it can mean paying a fee on homes you sell yourself, or through another agent.
- Which plots the agreement covers, and for how long.
- The notice period, and what you'd owe on buyers introduced before it ends.
- When the fee is due, for example on exchange or on completion.
- Who holds reservation fees. Money an agent receives in estate agency work is clients' money, held on trust for whoever is entitled to it (in Scotland, held as agent).
New homes experience
An agent who sells resale homes well won't necessarily sell off plan well. Questions worth asking:
- Off-plan sales. How many new homes have they reserved in the last year, and how many of those completed?
- The New Homes Quality Code. If you're registered with the New Homes Quality Board, any agents you use must be familiar with the Code and meet its requirements. Ask how they handle the information buyers must have before reserving, and the 14-day cooling-off.
- Their buyers. Where do they come from: local owner-occupiers, investors, or buyers overseas? Do they suit the homes on your site?
- Sales progression. After reservation, who chases the solicitors, surveys and mortgage offers, and how often will you hear about each plot?
- References. Ask for two or three developers they've sold for recently, and call them.
Before we built PlotBot, we saw an agent who was used to selling resale homes reserve plots to buyers who weren't mortgage-ready. The reservations looked like sales, but they fell through at the mortgage or valuation stage. New homes experience shows in what an agent checks before a buyer reserves, not just in how many reservations they bring.
With PlotBot, each reserved plot shows the buyer's mortgage readiness: cash buyer, in progress or offer in place. A sale still waiting on its mortgage is plain to see.
A checklist before you instruct an agent
- Redress scheme membership confirmed with the scheme itself
- Found on HMRC's Supervised Business Register, or registration number given
- Company active on Companies House, filings up to date, directors checked
- Company and directors searched on the UK Sanctions List
- Written terms received before committing: the fee, when it's payable and any other payments
- Sole agency, sole selling rights or neither: understood before signing
- Plots covered, length, notice period and when the fee is due agreed
- Who holds reservation fees agreed
- Off-plan and completion record checked, with references
- Familiar with the New Homes Quality Code, if you're registered
- Clear on who progresses each sale, and how often you hear
Every agent checked before they see your stock.
Every agent on PlotBot is checked on the official registers before they can see any stock. UK agents are checked on Companies House, the UK Sanctions List and HMRC's anti-money laundering register, and give us their redress scheme membership. Overseas agents are screened against the UK Sanctions List. You agree fees with each agent, site by site, and PlotBot then tracks every sale to completion. PlotBot never contacts your buyers.
Questions developers ask
How do I check an estate agent is legitimate?
Use four free official registers: confirm their redress scheme membership with the scheme, find them on HMRC's Supervised Business Register, look the company up on Companies House, and search the company and its directors on the UK Sanctions List.
Do estate agents have to be registered?
Yes, in two ways. Every estate agent dealing with residential property in the UK must belong to an approved redress scheme, and estate agency businesses must register with HMRC for anti-money laundering supervision.
What's the difference between sole agency and sole selling rights?
Under sole agency, you pay the agent if you exchange with a buyer they introduced, or one another agent introduced during the agency, but not a buyer you found yourself. Under sole selling rights, you pay them on any exchange during the agreement, even with a buyer you found yourself.
Can I use more than one agent on a development?
Yes, unless you've given one agent sole agency or sole selling rights. Under either, you'd owe that agent a fee on a sale another agent makes during the agreement, so read each agreement first.
Sources
- Redress schemes: Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007, explanatory notes; Property Redress Scheme, The law; National Trading Standards, scheme approval
- Anti-money laundering registration: HMRC, Who needs to register for money laundering supervision; HMRC, Check if a business is registered for money laundering supervision (updated 19 October 2026)
- Companies: Companies House; Register of disqualified company directors
- Sanctions: FCDO, The UK Sanctions List
- Terms and fees: Estate Agents Act 1979, section 18; Estate Agents (Provision of Information) Regulations 1991, regulations 3 to 6 and the Schedule
- Clients' money: Estate Agents Act 1979, section 13
- Agents and the Code: New Homes Quality Board, New Homes Quality Code version 2 (March 2026), sections 1.6 and 2.2 to 2.5
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Check any agency agreement with your own solicitor before you sign.
Also read: New build reservation agreements: what developers and agents need to get right