Making Sense of Material Information – Kotini Coffee Table

Until recently, the practical consequence of failing to disclose material information about a property was that a consumer complained, the agent tried to put it right, and the worst likely outcome was an unhappy client and a poor review. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCC Act), which came into force in 2025, changed that. Estate agents can now be investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) – the UK’s primary competition and consumer protection regulator – and fined the higher of £300,000 or 10% of global turnover. The investigation doesn’t require the transaction to have gone wrong. Under the DMCC Act, the consumer has a basic right to the information. Withholding it is enough.

For most agents, the withdrawal of the National Trading Standards (NTS) material information guidance – the Parts A, B, and C checklists that defined minimum disclosure requirements for UK property listings – felt like a relaxation of the rules. It wasn’t. It shifted the responsibility from a checklist to the individual agent’s professional judgment, while simultaneously strengthening the legal consequences of getting that judgment wrong.

Kotini is a UK property onboarding and compliance platform used by hundreds of estate agencies to collect, record, and document material information as part of a structured seller onboarding process – producing an auditable record that demonstrates due diligence to regulators.

What material information is, and why the definition now matters more

Material information is any information that a typical buyer would consider significant when deciding whether to buy a property – or at what price. Under the NTS guidance produced between 2022 and 2023 and the DMCC Act that followed, estate agents have a legal obligation to collect this information and make it available to prospective buyers before they make a transactional decision.

Toby Martin, a consultant and trainer who works with estate agency teams across the UK, described what that means in practice: “It is now up to the individual agent to make their own decision as to what constitutes material information. An awful lot is being left to common sense.”

The previous legal position under the Property Misdescriptions Act – which applied until 2013 – encouraged agents to say nothing if they weren’t certain, since making a false statement was the primary risk. The DMCC Act reverses that logic. Omitting information the agent could reasonably have obtained is now as problematic as providing misleading information. The old instinct to stay quiet if in doubt is now itself a compliance risk.

What agents are required to disclose, and how to identify it

The clearest test for what must be disclosed is the one Toby Martin offered on the Kotini Coffee Table webinar: if you think, “I hope no one finds that out,” that’s what you need to declare. Matt Baldock, director at Mackings estate agents in Sheffield, put the same idea in commercial terms:

“If you want to earn more money and get paid quicker, give them the information at the start.”

 

• • Matt Baldock, director, Mackings

Material information that agents commonly underestimate includes:

Leasehold details. The length of a lease is easy to check and frequently rounded or guessed by vendors. A vendor who says “I think it’s around 100 years” may have a lease that turns out to be 76 years – a threshold that significantly affects mortgage eligibility and value. Service charge estimates from vendors are routinely lower than the actuals that emerge at solicitor stage.

Parking arrangements. Informal parking arrangements – a front parking space that the family treats as theirs without it being in the title, a garage with shared access – are among the most common sources of post-sale disputes. What the vendor considers obvious (“everyone knows that’s our space”) is not always what the deeds say.

Planning and usage restrictions. Ann Durrell, managing director of Maddox Noel in Manchester, described a recurring scenario in her market: buyers purchasing investment properties under the assumption they could convert them to houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) for student lettings, when the property’s planning use class under Article 4 direction meant no such conversion was possible. “That buyer would not have bought that house without the opportunity to let it as an HMO.”

Neighbours and local factors. Rowan Waller, a lettings specialist, described the legal difficulty of a property adjacent to a slurry pit. It didn’t smell – but disclosure of it was still required. The buyers needed to understand what was there to make an informed decision. Withholding it because the agent hoped no one would ask is precisely the risk the DMCC Act is designed to address.

Pricing transparency. The DMCC Act also covers what is known as drip pricing – any additional costs introduced after the headline price. This includes stamp duty land tax, land registry fees, and other transaction costs that buyers need to factor into their budget. These should be referenced early in the process, not left to emerge at solicitor stage.

The commercial case for doing this well

Compliance is a floor, not a ceiling. The agents who treat material information as an administrative burden will collect the minimum and move on. The agents who treat it as a professional standard will use it to differentiate themselves, build trust with vendors, and create a better sale outcome.

The commercial argument starts with fall-throughs. The national fall-through rate in UK property is significant – estimates for 2024 put it at 28.8% to 29.8%,^1,2 with the government’s own consultation on home buying and selling noting that around 1 in 3 transactions fail to complete.³ These are transactions that collapse after an offer is accepted. A significant proportion of those collapses happen because information emerges at survey or solicitor stage that would have changed the buyer’s decision if they’d known it earlier. Collecting that information upfront – before the property goes to market – means buyers who make an offer do so with their eyes open. They’re less likely to withdraw when nothing surprises them.

Toby Martin described the framing that turns this into a valuation tool: “Has anyone else you’ve spoken to mentioned how doing this can give you a quicker sale, give you less chance of your sale falling through, and also protect you against action after the sale goes through? If they say no, then you’ve obviously demonstrated that you are the agent who’s going to guide and help them more than your competition.”

Matt Baldock extended this to the instruction pitch: “In terms of marketing, the agents, the A and Z route – one shows you around and doesn’t know the property, the other turns up with all the information packaged and sent over by link in advance. Who are you going to instruct if you’ve got a house to sell?”

The material information process, done well, is evidence of professional quality at the exact moment the vendor is deciding whether to trust you with one of the largest financial transactions of their life.

The audit trail requirement

The most dangerous position an agency can be in is one where material information was collected informally – verbally, or in a half-completed questionnaire with “don’t know” written across half the fields – and the documentation doesn’t demonstrate that the process was followed.

The CMA’s enforcement approach, as of 2025, is investigative rather than complaint-led. The agency cannot assume it will only face scrutiny if something goes wrong. The CMA has said it will look more favourably on businesses that are proactively trying to comply – but that requires evidence of the attempt, not just an intention to try.

An audit-ready material information record includes: the questions asked, the answers given, when they were collected, how they were verified, and what was disclosed to buyers and when. A conversation you remember having doesn’t create an audit trail. A documented digital record does.

Sophie Lang, partner at Northwood, described the consequence of lax documentation: “I’ve been quite glib about material information and not realising that actually this legislation strengthens the act. These are crippling fines for a company. Door-shutting sorts of fines for not doing some basic common sense thing.”

What this means for your agency

Three changes that reduce your exposure and improve your commercial position simultaneously:

First, review what you currently collect – and how. If material information is collected informally at valuation, or sent as a questionnaire with no explanation of why it matters, the vendor is filling it in quickly and guessing. Ann Durrell described the result: “They just whiz through it and put don’t know.” The fix is the framing. Tell vendors why the information matters to their sale – faster completion, reduced fall-through risk, protection for everyone involved – before you ask them to provide it.

Second, document everything digitally. A paper form or an email trail is not an audit-ready record. A digital platform that timestamps when information was collected, what was answered, what was flagged, and what was disclosed to buyers creates the evidence base you need if the CMA ever comes looking.

Third, train your team on what they’re looking for – not just what the form asks. The most important material information is often what the vendor didn’t volunteer. Local usage restrictions, informal arrangements, neighbour relationships, planned developments nearby. Agents who know their patch know what questions to ask beyond the standard ones.

Frequently asked questions

What is material information for estate agents?

Material information is any information that a typical buyer would consider significant when deciding whether to buy a property or at what price to offer. For UK estate agents, this includes physical attributes, legal and ownership details, physical risks, and any local factors that would influence a buyer’s decision. The obligation to collect and disclose it exists under the DMCC Act 2025 and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, regardless of whether the NTS Parts A, B, and C checklist guidance is in force.

What are the consequences of not providing material information?

As of 2025, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) can investigate estate agents for failing to disclose material information and issue fines of the higher of £300,000 or 10% of global turnover. Unlike previous legislation, the DMCC Act does not require something to go wrong – the consumer’s right to the information is sufficient basis for enforcement action.

How do estate agents collect material information efficiently?

The most efficient approach is a structured digital questionnaire sent to the vendor at or before instruction, with a clear explanation of why each piece of information matters to their sale. Digital platforms that timestamp responses, flag incomplete answers, and produce a documented record create both efficiency and an audit trail. Agents who explain the commercial benefit to the vendor – faster completions, fewer fall-throughs – get significantly better completion rates than those who send a questionnaire with no context.

What is the DMCC Act and what does it mean for estate agents?

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCC Act) came into force in 2025. It gives the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) new powers to investigate and fine businesses – including estate agents – for consumer protection breaches, including the failure to disclose material information. Before the DMCC Act, enforcement was largely complaint-led and the consumer typically needed to demonstrate that something had gone wrong. Under the DMCC Act, the CMA can investigate proactively, and the consumer’s right to information is enforceable without requiring a demonstrable loss.

What should an estate agent’s audit trail for material information include?

An adequate audit trail for material information should include a record of what questions were asked and when, the vendor’s responses, any items that were flagged as incomplete or uncertain, what was disclosed to prospective buyers and how, and any follow-up conducted to verify uncertain answers. A digital platform that records this automatically is preferable to paper or email records, which are harder to retrieve and demonstrate in the event of a regulatory investigation.

If you’d like to see how Kotini structures material information collection as part of the seller onboarding process – including the audit trail – the team is happy to show you how it works.

References

1. 1. Quick Move Now, UK property fall-through rate report, 2024

1. 1. GOTO Group, UK property fall-through rate report, 2024

1. 1. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Improving the home buying and selling process: government consultation, October 2025