Never trust a man in a pink shirt. Basic law of survival that one. Yet the BBC has uncovered that dishonesty among the estate agent fraternity runs deeper than dressing like a knob head:
Some estate agents are shown to:
Deliberately mislead surveyors by lying about the value of other properties that have sold - this could result in buyers paying over the odds for a property
Fail to draw would-be tenants' attention to high fees and to lie to them about whether landlords would agree to break clauses in their contracts, resulting in them being tied into tenancy agreements for longer than they might otherwise have been
Fake signatures on documents
Sign up clients by tempting them with a high asking price for their property then, once "on their books", putting in false low offers to the vendors in order to encourage them to lower their price to a more realistic level
Put up "for sale" signs at properties not on their books - this is known as flyboarding and is illegal
Undervalue a property in order to sell it at a cheap price to a property developer in return for a cash backhander of £10,000
No wonder you need a spare £300,000 to live here.
The best bit:
One estate agent supplied a reporter - posing as a would-be buyer - with a false British passport for £750 and false Customs and Revenue documentation, in order for them to get a mortgage.
All that should make tonight's Whistle Blower must watch TV. More here.
