What is the Full Material Information Guidance for Property Sales & Lettings?
The full material information guidance has been created to enable more transparency on property listings for both buyers and renters alike.
- The material information covers the details about a property that might impact your choices around it
- All unavoidable costs associated with a property when they listed for sale or to rent must now be included
- There are plans for property listings to become even more detailed in the future
Part 1: This covers unavoidable costs: such as price and council tax.
Part 2: Details of the property: including property type, building material types, available utilities and parking.
Part 3: information that may cause a risk, but only if they affect the property: such as building safety, flood risks and planning.
If you’re searching for a home, you might notice that listings have become more detailed.
This is part of an industry-wide process to improve property listings and give you all the important information from the start.
The aim is to create a more transparent and less stressful process for everyone involved in buying, selling or renting. It’s all about helping you make informed decisions about a property.
And ultimately, it should help your sale, purchase or rental go through more smoothly, as the facts are clear and everyone knows what they’re getting into from the start.
What is material information for a property listings?
Material Information will cover details about a property that might impact your choices around it.
National Trading Standards defines it as “information which the average consumer needs, according to the context, to take an informed transactional decision”.
It doesn’t cover information like local school ratings or proximity to a train station, as these are seen as preferences rather than essentials.
What information should you see on a property listing?
Since May 2022, estate agents need to include all unavoidable costs associated with a property when they list it for sale or to rent.
National Trading Standards explains in this video what is changing with the material information, how they’re benefiting buyers, sellers and renters.
You should see the following information on all listings for properties for sale:
- Sale price
- Council tax band (or domestic rate in Northern Ireland)
- Tenure (freehold, leasehold, share of leasehold, commonhold, feudal)
- For leasehold properties: length of lease, annual ground rent, ground rent review period, annual service charge amount and service charge review period
- For Shared Ownership properties: the percentage share being sold plus the rent you’ll pay on the other proportion
And for rental properties, listings should include:
- Rental rate
- Deposit amount
- Length of tenancy (year/month)
- Council tax band (England, Wales and Scotland)
EPC ratings have been a required to be included on property listings since April 2020 under existing laws and to be a minimum rating of E for residential lets with a requirment for this to change to a C by 2025 for new lets, however there will be some exceptions to this.
You can read the full publication from National Trading Standard of the Material Guidance for Sales and Lettings should you like to learn more.
