I noticed recently a letter from Peter Morgan concerning 'touting' by estate agents (see [2004] Gazette, 4 June, 14). Over the years, I have written from time to time concerning the matter because I still cannot understand why successive governments have failed to prescribe qualifications for estate agents, who should, surely, have been made to belong to a professional body.


When I was younger and practising in a city, most of the estate agents were chartered surveyors and therefore had to pass professional examinations, abide by professional rules and ethical regulations and, importantly, keep their clients' money separate from their own.


The most useful thing the Law Society could do would be to lobby for the establishment of an organisation similar to the Society to take charge of the regulations of all forms of estate agency and, after a decent period, to ban anyone who did not comply. The legal profession is well organised enough and powerful enough to make sure that this happens and that estate agents are properly regulated.



John Morgan, John Morgan and Partners, Mountain Ash, Wales