The Stage

Scurrilous attack on law-abiding agents

Published Tuesday 28 September 2004 at 09:40

Ray Hoppkrofft’s letter, headlined ‘Unlikely ‘new’ legislation will spell more legal hurdles’ (Opinion, September 9, page 6), appears to have missed the point of our advertisement. The Agents’ Association was merely pointing out that badly written legislation, the interpretation of which was neither clear in the legislation itself nor immediately forthcoming from the DTI, was both costly and time-consuming for agents.

I am well aware of the legal requirements of the 1973/6 act, as is our membership, and cheap shots like “Are we to assume from this that for the last 28 years the members of the Agents’ Association have been breaking the law?” are both unwelcome and unbecoming from a responsible company.

Similarly, our membership fully appreciates the definition of an employment agency as set out in the Employment Agencies Act of 1973, however, this is not how our European counterparts view themselves, a statement which they feel is backed by European Law.

I stand by my original statement on overall first year costs of £35 million as against the £3.5 million suggested by the DTI and cite that any agency operating a clients account will be involved in the additional cost of an accountants report, estimated at £300-£500 for a small agency and £5,000-£10,000 for a large agency, apart from any other printing, postage, time and legal costs.

Finally, I take great exception to Mr Hoppkrofft’s final paragraph suggesting that our membership would like to find themselves in a position of being able to charge up-front fees if they were not classed as employment agents. In our Memorandum and Articles of Association, incorporated in 1928 under Article 3(b), it is expressly forbidden for a member to demand or receive preliminary fees or receives commission before procuring employment - our predecessors outlawed this practice 75 years before the current legislation.

This is a scurrilous attack on a membership who are anxious to obey the law, however badly it is written.

Bob James

Immediate past president

c/o Agents’ Association

54 Keyes House

Dolphin Square

London

SW1V