Compliance
Carrington on Q1: Sliding stamp duty receipts and a Brexit fiasco
SDLT was brought in to cool the market, but this one size-fits-all approach has neither worked for the London market nor the Treasury, says LonRes Chairman William Carrington
Opinions sought on new money-laundering rules for high-end letting agents
The EU's Fifth Money Laundering Directive is slated to come into play in January, requiring UK letting agents dealing in rents above €10k per month to carry out AML checks on their clients.
HMRC hasn’t investigated many estate agents over money laundering
'Everybody’s talking about money laundering but it seems like nobody’s doing anything about it' says law firm Fieldfisher after finding out exactly how many investigations have been carried out in…
£100bn of UK property is ‘secretly’ owned
Global Witness analyses Land Registry data to highlight the scale of property ownership by 'anonymous companies registered in tax havens'
Countrywide fined £215k in HMRC crackdown
UK's largest estate agency penalised for failing to comply with money laundering regulations; HMRC carries out week-long swoop on property firms around the country
PEPs, SARs & MLROs: An A to Z of Anti-Money Laundering
As "gatekeepers", estate agents play a crucial role in the UK Government's ongoing efforts to stamp out money laundering and terrorism financing.
RICS publishes mandatory anti-corruption statement
Surveyor set out obligations for property professionals to tackle money laundering, bribery and corruption in the industry.
Government teams up with property & finance industries to tackle fraud
NAEA Propertymark joins the Government's new Economic Crime Strategic Board
Home Office rethinks ‘golden visa’ clampdown
Government slammed for 'trying to legislate by press release' after backtracking on surprise suspension of Tier 1 investor visas
Government suspends ‘golden visa’ scheme
Corruption crackdown brings halt on all new applications for Tier 1 investor visas, which require assets of £2m or more
HMRC fines for money laundering ‘more than double in a year’
The average fine for money laundering breaches is now £3,448 - seven times higher than it was two year ago.
Minister accuses estate agents of under-reporting suspicious activity
“It is remarkable how few Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) come from estate agents given that they are the main facilitators,” declared the Minister of State for Security, Ben Wallace, during a…