reg 13 Estate agents and letting agents
(1) In these Regulations, “ estate agent ” means a firm or a sole practitioner, who, or whose employees, carry out estate agency work, when the work is being carried out. (2) For the purposes of paragraph (1) “ estate agency work ” is to be read in accordance with section 1 of the Estate Agents Act 1979 (estate agency work), but for those purposes references in that section to disposing of or acquiring an interest in land are (despite anything in section 2 of that Act) to be taken to include references to disposing of or acquiring an estate or interest in land outside the United Kingdom where that estate or interest is capable of being owned or held as a separate interest. (3) In these Regulations, “letting agent” means a firm or sole practitioner who, or whose employees, carry out letting agency work, when carrying out such work. (4) For the purposes of paragraph (3), “letting agency work” means work— (a) consisting of things done in response to instructions received from— (i) a person (a “prospective landlord”) seeking to find another person to whom to let land, or (ii) a person (a “prospective tenant”) seeking to find land to rent, and (b) done in a case where an agreement is concluded for the letting of land— (i) for a term of a month or more, and (ii) at a rent which during at least part of the term is, or is equivalent to, a monthly rent of 10,000 euros or more. (5) For the purposes of paragraph (3) “letting agency work” does not include the things listed in paragraph (6) when done by, or by employees of, a firm or sole practitioner if neither the firm or sole practitioner, nor any of their employees, does anything else within paragraph (4). (6) Those things are— (a) publishing advertisements or disseminating information; (b) providing a means by which a prospective landlord or a prospective tenant can, in response to an advertisement or dissemination of information, make direct contact with a prospective tenant or a prospective landlord; (c) providing a means by which a prospective landlord and a prospective tenant can communicate directly with each other; (d) the provision of legal or notarial services by a barrister, advocate, solicitor or other legal representative communications with whom may be the subject of a claim to professional privilege or, in Scotland, protected from disclosure in legal proceedings on grounds of confidentiality of communication. (7) In paragraph (4) “land” includes part of a building and part of any other structure.