Posted on: Thursday, November 1, 2018
Security and economic crime minister Ben Wallace has revealed that the Home Office will start targeting the property industry harder to bolster its crusade against money laundering. He pointed out that the reason for this is that too few estate agents are currently reporting suspicious transactions.
Iain McKenzie, CEO of The Guild of Property Professionals, said: “With the government setting their sights on the property industry and heavily clamping down on Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) violations, the need for estate agents to have far stricter measures in place and ensure compliance is paramount.”
While the focus was initially on banks, the government has opened up its scope and is singling out ‘high end’ estates in particular, because the UK’s prime properties are seen around the world as a “mark of wealth and respectability”. According to Wallace, criminally acquired cash is still being funnelled through the country’s financial system, and the government sees estate agents as weak point in the nation’s defences against economic crime. He has urged estate agents to up their game with regard to reporting suspicious activities, failing which sever penalties and prosecutions would follow.
“We absolutely support making our members/businesses aware of their obligations under Money Laundering Regulations and in particular providing clarity of the roles and responsibilities of appointed officers and all members of the team in undertaking customer due diligence checks and on how to identify a suspicious activity. We have available in-branch training, online training and webinars all aimed to build robust processes and controls to reduce financial crime transactions becoming a reality,” adds McKenzie.
If you need advice or guidance on meeting compliance requirements contact The Guild.
We are required by law to conduct anti-money laundering checks on all those selling or buying a property. Whilst we retain responsibility for ensuring checks and any ongoing monitoring are carried out correctly, the initial checks are carried out on our behalf by Lifetime Legal who will contact you once you have agreed to instruct us in your sale or had an offer accepted on a property you wish to buy. The cost of these checks is £60 (incl. VAT), which covers the cost of obtaining relevant data and any manual checks and monitoring which might be required. This fee will need to be paid by you in advance of us publishing your property (in the case of a vendor) or issuing a memorandum of sale (in the case of a buyer), directly to Lifetime Legal, and is non-refundable. We will receive some of the fee taken by Lifetime Legal to compensate for its role in the provision of these checks.