The questions people ask.

The Ethical Agent Network is a UK network of independent estate agencies that have agreed to be held to a written standard. An agency cannot buy its way in. It has to prove how it treats people first, through its own public reviews and its record in its own town, and it signs eight promises it can be removed for breaking. The logo in a member's window is the short version of all of that.

Because from the outside you cannot tell a good agent from a confident one, and you are choosing on a single meeting. Membership is somebody else having already done the checking: the reviews read properly rather than counted, the community work evidenced rather than described, and eight promises signed that can be taken away. It does not make an agent perfect. It means there is a standard behind them and a way to lose it.

Nothing. There is no charge for the introduction, and you agree selling fees directly with the agency, exactly as you would with any estate agent. Member agencies pay the Ethical Agent Network a monthly membership fee, and that fee is what funds the network. It does not buy approval, because an agency has to meet the standard before it joins and no amount of paying gets an agency past that. Your enquiry is not sold on to anyone else.

All of it, or none of it. At least 50 Google reviews averaging 4.3 stars or higher, read properly rather than counted. Evidence of at least two community projects or donations a year. The eight promises, signed in full. Ongoing investment in training its team. And an assessment by people who run agencies themselves. There is no partial membership and no fast route.

Yes. Membership is conditional, not permanent. A member that stops meeting the standard or breaks one of the eight promises can have its membership ended and the logo taken out of its window. That is the whole difference between a badge an agency can buy and a badge that can be taken away.

Tell the Ethical Agent Network. You do not need to have instructed them, and you do not need to be sure. Nothing you send us reaches that agency unless you tell us we can, and we will come back and ask you first. A person reads it and answers within three working days. Separately from anything the network does, every estate agent in the United Kingdom has to belong to a government approved redress scheme, which will look at a complaint free of charge once you have complained to the agent first and given them a fair chance to put it right.

There may well be. The members page has a map of every postcode district a member works, so you can look without asking anybody. If nothing is marked where you live, ask anyway: agencies join, and there are usually a few part way through applying. If there really is nobody near you, you will be told that rather than passed to the nearest agent and told they are local.

The request goes to the Ethical Agent Network, not to five agencies. It is passed to the approved member covering your postcode, who contacts you to arrange a time. It is not sold on, it does not go to a comparison service, and it will only ever be passed to one agent. If no member covers your area yet, you will be told that instead.

No. Somebody comes round, looks at your home, and tells you what they think it is worth. That is the whole of it. It is free, you are not signing anything, and asking what your house is worth does not mean you have decided to sell it. If the part you are dreading is a stranger walking through your house, say so when you book and ask what they actually need to see. A good agent will have been asked that before.

No. One form, one inbox, and it goes to the single member agency covering your postcode. It is not sold to a lead generator, it does not go to a comparison service, and no third party buys its way to the front of it. The network takes no referral fee or commission for passing it on, which is why the agent who contacts you is the one who covers your postcode rather than the one who paid the most.

Look at the evidence rather than the promises. Read the middling reviews as well as the glowing ones, ask how the valuation figure was reached and which sold homes it is built on, check how long you are tied in for, and ask whether you are free to leave. The Ethical Agent Network publishes a seven point checklist and a list of eight questions to take with you, and both are written to be used on any agent, including ones it has never met.

Because listing on a portal is a choice an agency pays for, and a few agencies market differently, off portal or by invitation. It is not a sign that anything is wrong, but it does mean a portal search is not a complete picture of what is for sale in a town. If you are house hunting seriously it is worth registering directly with agencies in the area as well.

A blanket refusal is very difficult to defend. In July 2020 York County Court held that turning down a tenancy application because the applicant receives housing benefit was unlawful indirect discrimination on the grounds of sex and disability under the Equality Act 2010, and Birmingham County Court followed the same reasoning that September. Affordability and referencing checks are still perfectly legitimate, applied to everybody the same way. The difference the courts drew is between assessing a person and refusing a category.

Ask every one of them for the total including VAT, in writing, as a number of pounds against the valuation they have just given you. Fees are quoted with VAT by some and without it by others, and the two are not comparable, so it is easy to compare them by accident. Then ask what is not included, because photographs, floorplans, premium listings and the energy certificate are sometimes extra.

Many do, and it varies by agency rather than by network. It is worth asking directly, particularly if you are moving from a distance. What a virtual viewing is good for is deciding whether a property is worth the journey. It is not a substitute for standing in a room, and no agent worth using will tell you otherwise.

Yes. You do not have to book anything. The seven point checklist, the eight questions and the guide to what actually happens when you sell are all free to read on this site, and they are written to be useful whether or not you ever speak to a member agency. When you are ready, the booking form is there.