ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED in property sales have agreed to seek a meeting with the Data Protection Commissioner in a bid to resolve the current dispute over the publication of property prices.
More than 10 bodies met in Dublin yesterday to discuss the issue after concern was expressed that exaggerated sales prices were being submitted for publication in newspaper property reports.
In April, The Irish Timeswrote to some estate agents expressing concern that misleading private treaty sales prices were being submitted for publication in its property supplement.
The National Consumer Agency immediately warned that estate agents who exaggerated sales prices could be guilty of an offence under the Consumer Protection Act 2007 and could be prosecuted.
The Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute (IAVI) had said that data protection laws prevented it from releasing exact property sale prices without the consent of both the buyer and seller. Auctioneers used phrases such as "in the region of" instead.
The IAVI held a meeting yesterday with bodies including the National Consumer Agency, the Law Society, Fine Gael, the Society of Chartered Surveyors and representatives from the Departments of Environment and of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, in an attempt to resolve the issue.
Afterwards, IAVI president Edward Carey said the meeting was very positive and he hoped there would be a speedy resolution to the matter.
"We are pleased that a consensus recognised the existence of data protection problems in the property sector," he said.
"Today, we have agreed that this issue goes beyond house prices and includes the freedom of comparable evidence for arbitrations, compulsory purchase orders [ CPOs], court cases and rent reviews."
Mr Carey repeated his call for a change to the existing data protection legislation or a ministerial order that would allow for the publication of such prices.
A number of countries have national databases of private property sales prices which can be accessed by the public. It was agreed that procedures followed by these countries would be examined.
"The IAVI, along with the three other professional bodies in the sector, the Society of Chartered Surveyors, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers and the Irish Property and Facilities Management Association, wants to further this discussion with the Data Protection Commissioner," Mr Carey said.
The National Consumer Agency's director of commercial practices, John Shine, said the agency would not be forming a view on the preferred solution until Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes had examined the issue.
"The bottom line for us is to ensure that whatever information is released to the consumer is not misleading and is accurate," he said.
The lack of specific information on house prices was causing difficulty now, he said, but no information was preferable to wrong information.
The Consumers Association of Ireland described the meeting as "very good and transparent". Its chief executive Dermott Jewell said the meeting had heard calls for existing legislation to be examined first before considering the introduction of new legislation.
Afterwards, Fine Gael housing spokesman Terence Flanagan called on all interested parties to work on a new code of practice that would end the provision of misleading information.
"It's simply not acceptable that price information that is months out of date or completely inaccurate should be given to consumers as a guide," he said.
"Such anti-consumer practices will harm the industry in the long run."
