More than 3 out of 5 real estate professionals inspected in 2020 by the General Directorate for the Repression of Fraud (DGCCRF) were in violation, according to a public administration survey unveiled on Thursday.
Out of a thousand real estate intermediary professionals (agents, representatives, etc.) checked, 62.5% did not respect at least one of their professional obligations, a figure slightly down from the 64% recorded in 2019.
Professionals are inspected not randomly but following complaints and reports from consumers, or because they have not been inspected before.
More 50% of breaches identified by the DGCCRF departments related to consumer information and on the business practices professionals,” she explains. Many lack of information related to the display of agents’ fees, which were not very visible or poorly indicated.
Deceptive business practices
According to the survey, 21% of professionals also resorted to deceptive commercial practices, such as leaving advertisements posted for goods already sold or when the sales mandate has expired. Some professionals also have attempts to obtain fees even when the sale was not concluded by themshe notes.
The DGCCRF also mentions questionable rental practiceswith a state of play a succinctly established input and an exhaustive and much more detailed output. The formalism of the two documents must however be similar in order to be able to compare them, it is recalled. Rental advertisements are too often incomplete, with important details (area, amount of charges or deposit, etc.) sometimes missing, adds the administration.
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Given the high rate of anomalies, control pressure will therefore be maintained in this sector, especially since the regulations have changed in 2022 with the introduction of the mandatory display of scales at maximum prices, information on regulation of rents and on the diagnosis of energy performance, warns the DGCCRF.
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