Estate agents and the Register of Overseas Entities: two years on
The ROE regime introduced by ECTEA 2022 continues to catch out property firms working with foreign buyers and their advisers. We revisit the perimeter — who is caught, when verification is required, what evidence is defensible, how updates and annual filings interact with a live transaction, and where the interaction with HMRC's estate agent supervisory approach creates the greatest exposure — and set out a working checklist for compliance officers in the sector.
Who is caught
The ROE captures any overseas entity that owns or seeks to own qualifying UK land. For estate agents this bites at the point of instruction as well as at completion.
The verification standard
Verification must be carried out by a UK-supervised relevant person and must be no more than three months old at the point of filing. Firms relying on overseas verifiers will fail the standard.
Interaction with HMRC supervision
HMRC's estate agent supervision now tests ROE compliance as part of routine review. A file without evidence of the ROE check on an overseas seller will generate a finding.