Making a fair buying process legal
The cabinet is exploring the possibilities for a new law: "fair buying process. This law should give buyers and sellers more control over the buying and selling processes of homes. The law comes after the minister recently signed a covenant with the trade associations to monitor the integrity of the profession. As a follow-up to this, trade associations themselves took the lead by making the bid log mandatory for its members.
Legal obligation of the Bid Log
In the parliamentary letter, Minister De Jonge says he is pleased with the steps taken by the industry associations, although not as quickly as previously agreed in the covenant. In doing so, the minister also sees major differences between the bid logs of brokerage associations. Where one bid log is fixed with data, there are also alternatives where brokers can still change data afterwards. The differences between them highlight the importance of legal certification of the bidding process. This prevents a consumer, when submitting a bid, from having to check which software they use for each broker.
Minister De Jonge is therefore calling on industry associations to come up with a uniform standard for the Bid Log. Legally enshrining the bid log will ensure that all brokers are subject to the same rules and equal (information) standards.
Providing information to consumers
Another spearhead of the Fair Buying Process Act is the provision of information to consumers prior to the bidding process. Candidates can therefore, for example, make a bid with greater certainty when they are fully informed of all relevant information about a property. For sellers, it means that the risk of rescission is thereby greatly reduced.
Minister De Jonge wants to push for confidential documents to be made available using a 'safe'. This will prevent sensitive information from being emailed back and forth between broker and candidates. Eerlijk Bieden was the first party to launch the Dataroom for this purpose several months ago. In the meantime, it is being investigated whether such a vault will also be included in the certification process of the bidding process.
In previous House letters, there were hints of possibly making caveats mandatory. This would mean that a consumer would automatically include a financial caveat and building inspection with every offer. Ultimately, this would ensure a level playing field and risk mitigation for consumers. The minister ultimately refrains from these measures, opting instead to properly inform consumers in advance.
No Norwegian model
Remarkably, this means that the 'Norwegian model', also known as open bidding according to an auction, is off the table for the time being. To this end, prior to the exploration for the 'fair sales process' law, the minister commissioned research by the Erasmus University and the University of Amsterdam. This research compares the various sales methods to examine the extent to which they can contribute to countering unnecessary price increases and non-integrity.
The researchers conclude that the open model prevents unnecessary price increases, but the closed model (most commonly used in the Netherlands), on the other hand, ensures a greater chance of winning for candidates with less deep pockets. In response to these results, the minister argues that the choice of selling method should remain free to the seller, advised by the real estate agent.
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