Supervision

Supervision following a report

Most of the supervisory matters handled by FMI begin with a report from the public. A report may also be filed by another authority who discovered that the estate agent or agency has acted inappropriately. For example, the Swedish Tax Agency may discover that an estate agent has acted incorrectly during their audits.

The person filing the report is often critical of how the estate agent acted during a mediation contract, or how the agency fulfills its responsibilities. The supervision is not limited to the issues raised in the report; we may also investigate other aspects of the mediation contract or the estate agents’ activities in general, if warranted. The same applies if the supervision is directed at an agency.

Authority-initiated supervision

FMI can initiate a supervisory matter on its own accord. This might be triggered by an article or an advertisement in a newspaper, a TV programme or information on the internet. FMI may have been informed of a decision or accessed information from other authorities pertaining to an estate agent or agency. The information might also have been communicated to us verbally.

FMI conducts regular checks against the Police Authority’s criminal record registry and the Enforcement Authority’s register of outstanding debts. If an estate agent has committed a crime or has outstanding debts, this may lead to authority-initiated supervision.

Estate agents and agencies are also required to pay an annual fee to maintain their registrations. Therefore, authority-initiated supervision is conducted every year for estate agents and agencies who either fail to pay the annual fee or pay it late.

Thematic supervision

During a thematic supervision, FMI selects a legal issue or concept which we wish to investigate. We decide which estate agents or agencies will be investigated and only focus on the issue in question.

The purpose of thematic supervisions is to accelerate the development of a practice or specify what is to be regarded as good practice for estate agents regarding specific issues. The purpose may also be to assess the effectiveness of previous supervisory interventions.

We may also use thematic supervision when we need to compile data or practice regarding a specific issue. Following a thematic study of this kind, we record our findings in a memorandum or report. The results can be used to inform others of what constitutes good practice and to help us plan our supervisory activities.

Penalties

All supervision, regardless of type, can result in the FMI disciplinary committee taking disciplinary action against the estate agent or the agency, such as issuing a warning.