Are you an Estate Agent?

Are you an estate agent — do you feel safe?

Many Estate Agencies now offer digital viewing options, giving prospective clients a choice of how to view a property. This can be a positive service, especially during initial Sales or Letting viewings that can help immediately eliminate or highlight potential interest. It can save time for both the client and agent and overcome geographical barriers using the many virtual tools available to anyone with online access. But traditional personal service still ranks high, for both clients and agents after a challenging time with the impact of Covid. This ”human” service often puts Estate Agents (visiting a prospective client or showing a property) in a lone working situation. Working alone can have some advantages, but there are also a lot of risks too.

Are you aware of the case of Suzy Lamplugh and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust?

In 1986 a Twenty-Five-year-old Estate Agent from Fulham went missing whilst on a viewing. Suzy Lamplugh’s disappearance had a huge impact on estate agents at the time, and the shock is still felt now. She left her office to meet a client “Mr Kipper” at an empty house, the alarm was raised in the evening when she failed to return to the office. Suzy was never found, and she was officially declared dead, presumed murdered seven years later in 1993. As a result of her disappearance, The Suzy Lamplugh Trust was set up. A pioneering personal safety charity and leading stalking authority. They are widely regarded as a field expert in lone-working and personal safety training, stalking training, as well as consultancy, campaigning, and support services.

Estate Agent Risks

With just under 48,000 estate agents working in the United Kingdom as of 2022 there are a lot of agents who could be put at risk daily.

We usually think about Risk Assessments for covering trips and hazards, VDU screen time and using equipment, so the main ones we want to address and to follow on from mentioning Suzy Lamplugh are:

Lone Working onsite — within the Estate Agency premises
Lone Working offsite — When offering a personal viewing service; an open house; or documenting information for a listing, audit.
Lone Working offsite — Even offering clients a lift service between estates

Each Lone Working situation creates a potentially dangerous position for an Estate Agent. They’re more vulnerable to verbal or physical abuse from customers and whilst visiting a commercial or other premises (to record details for a listing, or show a client around) Estate Agents are also at risk of injury due to any poorly maintained premises or substances found within it. These are all classified as “uncontrolled” risks and need careful focus.

Agents can work long hours alone, in unfamiliar properties, with people they don’t know, and sometimes in the dark. That is a very scary position to be in without some safety procedures in place

How Estate Agents can stay safe?

Does your estate agency have procedures in place to keep staff safe on viewings? Everyone should understand the importance of procedures to keep people safe and provide reassurance that someone has your back during potentially vulnerable situations. Taking steps to minimise the risks, is something everyone can take part in, but business owners MUST address them, they have a duty of care to ensure their staff is safe. Here are some of our suggestions

Have more than one member of staff in the office / shop so that no one works alone, especially when it’s open to the public.
Ask about the condition of the premises and its contents BEFORE heading to the site
Record all relevant viewing details for staff to access (digital or paper) and know locations and times
Use a shared diary
Verify email, addresses, and telephone numbers given
Carry a well charged, mobile phone
Carry a personal alarm
Have a system in place that allows staff to escalate any concerns
Use a system where Managers and Office administrators can monitor agents’ location

All of the above can be managed using manual systems but you need to ensure they are robust. We would suggest that you consider a LONE WORKER APP. There are many on the market that can track the location of your staff in real-time (during work time); provide reports; communicate with your staff; allow them to check in with you (with an automatic reminder to do so); allow for someone to escalate any concerns that they may have. An app such as this will provide some peace of mind to staff, management, and business owners.

We have developed an affordable and flexible Lone Worker App which helps organisations with their safety strategy. And we are proud supporters of the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.

The HSE states “Lone workers are those who work by themselves without close or direct supervision” Even for a short time. If you employ someone as a Lone Worker our MyTeamSafe App will assist with your legal duty of care requirements and help with keeping your employees safer. If you would like to try a FREE trial, please email us at blog@myteamsafe.com

EXTRA….

If you are an Estate Agent, there is a national paper using SurveyMonkey to get information on the important issue of Estate Agent Safety — we have provided the link as you may want to contribute.

MyTeamSafe®, an award-winning lone-worker App & proud supporter of the Suzy Lamplugh Trust