On 23 March, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) published the results of its inquiry into the estate agency industry.

My law firm is unusual in having its own estate agency and so I was interested in the OFT's findings.

There is no shortage of criticism as far as estate agents are concerned, much of it well-justified.

However, I was surprised to learn that the OFT thought the typical charging structure needed to be clarified.

It called for clearer contracts, with the amount of commission written in pounds, rather than as a percentage figure.

Like most estate agents, we charge on a commission basis, ranging typically from 1% to 2% of the sale price.

You don't need to be Einstein to work out the fee.

If the OFT thinks this is too complicated, I suspect that the Law Society's conditional fee agreement would cause it a complete nervous breakdown.

Dermot Burke, Bells Potter Solicitors, Farnham