The controversial practice of ‘double dipping’ has been an industry standard for companies which do both acquisition and disposal. How does it work? An agent will act for both the landlord and the company searching, this means when the deal goes through they get a fee from both landlord and tenant. 

A new code of practice has been written by the Investment Property Forum which offers guidelines for what agents can and can’t do when acting on both sides of a deal. It also reviews appropriate conduct when acting on behalf of multiple bidders and the level of transparency required when doing so. 

Teresa Beatty from Morgan Pryce said “this is the benefit of signing a tenant only representative company when searching for new premises, you know they have your best interest at hand.” This being said, many big companies are signing up to get on board this policy which will make a significant difference to the problem. 

The main point of the policy is to declare in writing any duel interests in a deal so tenants are aware of the conflict of interest. Although this policy is not a law, it is hoped that professional pressures will encourage agents to work by it. 

This news was brought to you by Morgan Pryce, a specialist tenant acquisition agent with offices in Oxford Circus and the City. Morgan Pryce specialises in search, negotiation and project management and works exclusively for tenants.