Independent consumer guide. Not affiliated with Fox & Sons or Connells Group. Not legal advice.
Your rights when dealing with an estate agent
- Redress scheme membership is compulsory. Every sales and lettings agent must belong to an approved scheme (TPO or the Property Redress Scheme). Free, independent, and can award compensation.
- Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. Agents must not give misleading information or omit material information — this applies to what they tell buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants.
- The Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires services to be performed with reasonable care and skill. An agency service that falls below that standard is a breach of contract.
- Estate Agents Act 1979 — agents must declare personal interests, handle offers properly and pass all offers on.
Your data rights (UK GDPR)
- Access (Article 15): the DSAR — see our full guide
- Rectification (Article 16): inaccurate data about you must be corrected without undue delay
- Erasure (Article 17): in some circumstances you can require deletion
- No retaliation: exercising your data rights is legally protected. A company cannot lawfully treat you worse for sending a DSAR
Writing a negative review without getting into trouble
You are entitled to publish honest reviews and factual accounts of your experience. The safe rules under UK defamation law:
- Truth is the complete defence. Only state as fact what you can prove with documents. “On [date] they wrote X” — provable — is safe. “They always lie” is not.
- Label opinion as opinion. “In my opinion the service fell far below what I’d expect” is protected honest opinion when based on facts you state.
- Don’t guess motives. Describe what happened, not why you think they did it.
- Avoid loaded words like “fraud,” “scam,” “criminal,” “theft” — these are factual allegations you’d have to prove to a legal standard.
- Focus on the company, not personal attacks on staff. Criticise the corporate conduct and the process failures.
- Keep your evidence for every factual claim in your review, indefinitely.
If you’re accused of something you didn’t do
A theme of the case study on this site. If a company makes a serious allegation against you:
- Demand particulars in writing: exactly what is alleged, by whom, on what evidence, and what has been done with the allegation (e.g. was any third party told?)
- Send a DSAR immediately — internal records about the allegation are your personal data
- Request rectification or retraction in writing if the records are false
- Never respond in anger. Every message you send may be read later by an ombudsman, a regulator or a judge. Write for that audience.
Where to get real legal advice
This site shares one consumer’s documented experience and general information. For advice on your specific situation: Citizens Advice (free), your home insurance legal expenses cover (often forgotten — check your policy), or a solicitor offering a fixed-fee initial consultation.