Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 124: 124: Clause 52, page 30, line 31, at end insert— ““( ) Sections 172 to 174 of the Housing Act 2004 (c. 34) (redress schemes dealing with complaints about the activities of estate agents in relation to home information packs) are omitted.”” The noble Lord said: If, during Committee, I have not taken up any of the points that Members of the Committee have made, I will of course write to them. Amendments Nos. 123, 153 and 154 will enable the Government to repeal Sections 172 to 174 of the Housing Act 2004. It was originally intended that during the passage of the Housing Act, sections would be added with the intention of achieving full redress provisions for estate agents in England and Wales, with the longer-term aim of widening that to all estate agents in the UK when a suitable legislative vehicle became available. The redress provisions that were added to the Housing Act could be made to apply only to complaints relating to home information packs due to the scope of the Housing Act. Our intention is to have adopted at least one redress scheme under the Housing Act for the purpose of HIP-related complaints against estate agents by the time such packs are introduced on 1 June 2007. However, when the redress provisions in the Bill are commenced, which we expect to be in April 2008, estate agents will be required to belong to a redress scheme that covers all estate agency-related complaints. However, the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox, with her usual perspicacity, asked at Second Reading how the redress provisions under the Housing Act would fit with those under the Bill. The amendments will allow us to repeal the Housing Act redress provisions. However, we will do that only when the redress board set up under the Bill comes into force. This will provide for a smooth transition between the two sets of provisions; it will also reduce uncertainty in the industry and reassure estate agents that they will not be subject to two different duties under two different Acts. The amendments to Schedules 7 and 8 are consequential. In terms of the transition, when the order requiring estate agents to belong to a wider scheme comes into force, all complaints from that date will be dealt with under the wider scheme. The Housing Act provisions relating to redress will be repealed in so far as they relate to new complaints. It is still to be determined how outstanding complaints under the HIP scheme or schemes will be dealt with. One option is for the approved HIP scheme or schemes to continue to operate as an approved scheme or schemes until those complaints have been dealt with. Alternatively, they could be transferred to the new scheme. That will be decided when one or more schemes have been approved by the OFT and once the Bill receives Royal Assent. I beg to move. On Question, amendment agreed to. Clause 52, as amended, agreed to. Schedule 6 [Estate Agents’ Redress Scheme]: