All estate agents in the UK must register with a new anti-money laundering register that is being launched at the end of July.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is reminding agents that it will be compulsory to belong to the register by the end of January 2010. Any agent who is not registered by then will be operating illegally.

The Money Laundering Regulations, which came into force on 15 th December 2007, also applies to buyers’ agents and relocation agents. Failure to register whilst carrying on business as an estate agent could result in prosecution and jail.

As the actual registration process will take around 45 days, the OFT is asking agents to apply to join the register as soon as it is open on 31 st July and at least by the end of November as it expects a mad rush at the end of the year.

Agents will have to pay £115 per office, capped at £2,300 for a firm with 20 or more branches. There will be an annual fee payable after that, although the actual amount has yet to be decided.

While anti-money laundering laws do not include letting agents the OFT has also warned that they do apply to letting agents under certain circumstances. If a letting agent deals in premium leases where companies ‘purchase’ leases for, usually, one or two years on behalf of their employees then they will need to register. This particular method of renting is popular with corporates such as American banks relocating personnel on assignments to the UK.