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It does seem strange that estate agency is not under the same regulation as financial advice. Both professions deal with what most people agree to be the most stressful, expensive and possibly important transaction of their lives.

One body reports to the FSA and is carefully monitored to ensure customers are treated fairly and can be prevented from practicing and the other is a law unto themselves.

There are in-house organisations and associations to help agents in their business giving credibility through rules of conduct but those rules are purely for that association. Anyone can set up another association and instigate another set of rules.

It seems anyone can get a job at an estate agency and start advising people on sales and purchases without a qualification.

As a profession that is commission based it is imperative to an agent that houses get sold quickly and at the highest price. There will probably be a higher percentage of rogue professionals who just look for the payslip at the end of the month purely on that basis of no regulation.

Estate agents, rightly or wrongly, have a poor reputation with the general public. I am sure that if the profession was brought under regulation then that view of agents would improve overnight.

Peter O' Donovan is a mortgage adviser for Bestinvest