60% of people that have bought or sold a property in the last five years experienced a problem with their estate agent, according to research from the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA).

And yet, 39% of buyers and sellers did not consider whether their estate agent was regulated, meaning their agent may not have been signed up to a code of conduct or have any regulatory body over seeing them. With 60% reporting to have had issues with their estate agents, 37% admitted that these could have been avoided if their agent was better regulated.

The largest complaint was the fact that their estate agent had bad communication skills – either not calling them back, or chasing them too much (21%). A further 14% felt as though their agent didn’t care about them.

An additional 13% claimed that their estate agent had not told them about known faults in properties they were looking at, while 11% said their agent made promises to them that they did not see through. Other problems reported by home buyers and sellers included finding that their agent was unnecessarily over-pricing (9%), being dishonest (9%) and over exaggerating property descriptions (10%).

Mark Hayward, managing director of the NAEA, said: “Buying a property is the biggest purchase and financial commitment of your life, and can be an overwhelming experience. It takes a lot of hard work and research to ensure you are ticking all the right boxes, and no doubt people come across many challenges along the way. An estate agent should really be there to help this process, not hinder, and therefore the choice of which agent to go with is an important one.

“With the extensive administrative tasks and processes involved in buying or selling a home, communication between agents and homeowners is essential. It’s the estate agents’ role to make these processes seem as pain-free and seamless as possible, which regulated agents endeavour to do.”

The report identified that those in London are the most likely to encounter a problem with their estate agent, with 83% claiming to have had an issue. Problems that Londoners reported include not being informed about known property faults (34%), bad communication (16%) and feeling as if the estate agent didn’t care about them (14%). Those in Scotland have had the easiest run, with only 35% claiming to have had a problem with their estate agent in the last five years.

The study also revealed that 47% of those who didn’t check whether their agent was regulated or not, said it didn’t even cross their minds. A further 16% assumed that all agents were regulated, whilst a fifth (21%) simply chose their agent because they managed the house they wanted.

Hayward added: “In such a lively market, it’s important that agents are trying their upmost to deliver exceptional standards of service. Consumers need to ensure that they are looking for the NAEA logo in estate agents’ windows and doors. NAEA Licenced agents integrate high quality and best practice services in to everything they do.

“Whilst problems can and do arise during the process of buying or selling a home, using a NAEA Licenced agent will put consumers’ minds at ease that any issues can be dealt with in a professional and safe manner.”