You are in the older regime, and it is the stricter one
A sales-only agency is governed by the Estate Agents Act 1979 and the Estate Agents (Accounts) Regulations 1981. Section 13 puts clients' money on a statutory trust. Section 14 requires it in a client account, with the word “client” in the account title, without delay. Regulation 6(3) prescribes what the records must contain. Regulation 8(1) requires an annual audit by a qualified auditor within six months of the period end.
None of that is optional and none of it depends on how much money you hold. Section 14(8) makes breach a summary offence carrying a fine up to level 4 on the standard scale, and failure to produce the latest auditor's report on demand to an enforcement officer is caught by the same subsection.
The sanction that matters is not the fine
Section 3 of the Act allows orders prohibiting unfit persons from doing estate agency work, and section 4 allows warning orders short of that. National Trading Standards confirms it issues prohibition and formal warning orders to those found unfit to engage in estate agency work in the UK. A level 4 fine is survivable. A prohibition order is the end of the business, and section 15(5) expressly allows a failure to account for interest to be taken into account when the lead enforcement authority considers fitness under s.3(1)(c).
Consumer law is the other live exposure
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 Part 4 Chapter 1 replaced the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations on 6 April 2025. Section 230 requires material information in an invitation to purchase to be given clearly, in a timely way and in a way the consumer is likely to see it. There are new prohibitions on drip pricing and fake reviews.
The CMA can now fine directly without going to court, with substantive penalties capped at £300,000 or, if higher, 10% of worldwide turnover. The practical compliance standard for listings is the National Trading Standards material information guidance — Part A on council tax band, price and tenure, Part B on property type, construction materials, room measurements, utilities and parking, and Part C on conditional matters like building safety, restrictions, flood risk and planning.
What we do for a sales agency
Client account bookkeeping to the reg 6(3) standard, monthly three-way reconciliation, and all the preparation for the regulation 8(1) audit — with the report itself signed by a registered auditor, because we are not one. Then the ordinary work: annual accounts, corporation tax or the partnership return, VAT, payroll, and management figures that show commission by negotiator and by branch rather than as one number.
We do the accounting. A registered auditor signs the report.
Accountants for Estate Agents
Client account bookkeeping and the monthly three-way reconciliation. The records reg 6(3) actually prescribes — payer, capacity held, the interest in land, tracked separately by property. The agency's annual accounts, corporation tax or partnership return, payroll, VAT and the management figures you run the business on. All the preparation that decides whether the report comes back clean.
Buzz Accounting Ltd is licensed by the AAT and a member of the ICPA. It is not a chartered accountancy firm and not a registered auditor.
Anstey Bond LLP
Colin Ellis, ICAEW and a Responsible Individual, audits the client account and signs the report. Regulation 8(1) of the Estate Agents (Accounts) Regulations 1981 requires a qualified auditor, and EAA 1979 s.14(6)–(7) defines that as someone eligible for appointment as a statutory auditor under the Companies Act 2006. Propertymark says the same thing for its own Accountant’s Report, citing Companies Act 2006 s.1239.
Anstey Bond LLP is a separate firm, registered for audit by the ICAEW. Companies House OC360626.
Common questions
We only do sales. Do we need a CMP scheme?
Almost certainly not, and that is a genuine saving rather than a loophole. The Client Money Protection Regulations 2019 attach to English letting agency work and English property management work, taking their meaning from sections 54 and 55 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016. Sales are neither. MHCLG's statutory guidance confirms the boundary: client money protection applies to tenancies and grants of licence of less than 21 years, and activities associated with lettings of 21 years or over fall outside its scope. What you are in instead is the Estate Agents Act regime, which is older, stricter in some respects, and carries an annual audit the CMP regime does not.
Do we hold client money if we only take reservation fees?
Yes, and this is where sales-only agencies most often assume they are outside the regime. Section 13 covers clients' money received in the course of estate agency work, including money received as stakeholder — a pre-contract deposit or reservation fee held pending exchange is exactly that. Section 14(1) then requires it to be paid into a client account without delay, and the whole records-and-audit apparatus follows. The amount does not matter. There is no de minimis in s.14, and an agency holding a handful of reservation fees at any one time is in the same regime as one holding six figures.
What does the audit involve for a sales agency?
Less than most people fear, if the records are right, and considerably more if they are not. The auditor is reporting under reg 8(3) on whether the Act's requirements about how clients' money is dealt with, and the Regulations, have been complied with. In practice that means testing that money went into the client account without delay, that nothing else was in there beyond what reg 4 permits, that the reg 6(3) records identify the payer, the capacity, the interest in land and the person entitled, and that the account reconciles. Where the records are maintained monthly this is a short exercise. Where they are reconstructed at year end from bank statements it is not, and it tends not to produce a clean opinion.
Is our redress scheme membership the same thing as CMP?
No, they are separate obligations under separate instruments and it is worth keeping them straight. Redress for residential estate agency work comes from the Estate Agents (Redress Scheme) Order 2008, in force 1 October 2008 under EAA 1979 s.23A, and it applies UK-wide: every person who engages in relevant estate agency work must belong to an approved redress scheme. Client money protection comes from the 2019 Regulations and applies to lettings in England. You can need one and not the other. The penalty routes differ too — up to £1,000 by penalty charge notice under s.23B and Schedule 4 for the estate agency redress breach, against £30,000 for the CMP one.
How is our commission recognised?
On the event your terms of business say creates the liability, which the law already requires you to state. Section 18 of the Estate Agents Act requires you, before the client is committed, to give particulars of the circumstances in which they will become liable to pay remuneration and particulars of the amount or how it will be calculated — with the form prescribed by the Estate Agents (Provision of Information) Regulations 1991. Failing to do so makes the contract unenforceable except by order of the court, and the court may dismiss the claim or reduce the sum. So the recognition point is not a matter of accounting preference: sole agency with commission due on completion recognises on completion; commission earned on exchange recognises on exchange.