Property Services (Regulation) Act 2011

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Regulations that may be made by Authority — general.

95.— (1) The Authority, with the consent of the Minister, may and, if directed by the Minister to do so and in accordance with the terms of the direction, shall, following consultation with any other person or body as the Authority thinks fit or as the Minister directs, by regulations provide for any matter referred to in this Act as prescribed under this section and for all or any of the following:

(a) the classes of licences which may be issued by the Authority and the conditions (if any) attaching to such classes of licences;

(b) the procedures governing—

(i) the issue and renewal of licences; and

(ii) the surrender of licences;

(c) the standards to be observed in the provision of property services by licensees or particular classes of licensees with particular reference to—

(i) the public interest;

(ii) the duty owed to clients and users and potential users of property services;

(iii) the professional and ethical conduct of licensees;

(iv) the confidentiality of client information; and

(v) conflicts of interest;

(d) the qualifications (including levels of training, education and experience) or any other requirements (including required minimum levels of professional indemnity insurance) for the issue and renewal of licences, or particular classes of licences;

(e) the terms on which indemnity against losses is to be available to licensees under any policy of indemnity insurance (including, in the case of licensees who are property services employers, the extent to which such indemnity covers principal officers and employees of property service employers who provide property services in their capacity as such principal officers or employees, as the case may be) and the circumstances in which the right to such indemnity is to be excluded or modified;

(f) the records to be maintained and the information and returns to be provided to the Authority by licensees or particular classes of licensees;

(g) the amount of the contributions to be made to the Fund in respect of applications for a licence or for the renewal of a licence, or exemptions from the payment of such amounts, or waiving, remitting or refunding such amounts (in whole or in part), in different circumstances or classes of circumstances or in different cases or classes of cases; and

(h) the procedures for applications for grants.

(2) The Authority shall not prescribe a longer period for the purposes of subsection (6) of section 31 unless it is satisfied that—

(a) the longer period will not prejudice the financial stability of the Fund by virtue of depriving the Fund of contributions payable into it upon the renewal of licences, and

(b) the longer period will reduce the expenses incurred by the Authority in the administration of this Act in so far as it relates to the renewal of licences but without thereby prejudicing the Authority’s responsibility to control and supervise licensees.

(3) The Authority shall not prescribe an offence for the purposes of paragraph (b) of the definition of “material matter” in section 41 (4) unless it is satisfied that the offence is of a kind that is so remote or insignificant in relation to the matters that would normally be taken into account to determine whether a person is a fit and proper person to provide a property service that the offence could not reasonably be regarded as being a matter of which the Authority ought to be aware.