{"id":13009,"date":"2026-05-15T16:58:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.craneandco.co.uk\/pages\/?p=13009"},"modified":"2026-05-15T16:58:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:58:54","slug":"the-estate-agents-who-smelt-a-rat-and-saved-the-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.craneandco.co.uk\/pages\/the-estate-agents-who-smelt-a-rat-and-saved-the-day\/","title":{"rendered":"The Estate Agents Who Smelt a Rat and Saved the Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

You might think that estate agents just sell houses. But there\u2019s much more to it than that.<\/span><\/h3>\n

When you\u2019re selling your home, a good estate agent will look out for your interests every step of the way.<\/p>\n

A recent story in the press reminded us just how important it is to have a real duty of care to our customers.<\/p>\n

Estate agents in Cambridge smelt a rat when a lady approached them to sell her home, then told them she was moving to the USA to marry actor Jay Harrington of S.W.A.T. fame.<\/p>\n

Worried the seller could lose everything if she transferred the sale proceeds abroad, they quickly alerted the police.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the agents\u2019 action, Cambridgeshire Constabulary\u2019s cyber and fraud prevention officers stepped in and saved the day.<\/p>\n

Sadly, while property fraud of this type and others is pretty rare, it\u2019s not entirely unknown.<\/p>\n

According to HM Land Registry, it prevented fraudulent activity against more than 300 homes worth over \u00a3194 million between 2020 and 2025 alone.<\/p>\n

Trust a good estate agent to watch your back.<\/span><\/h3>\n

When you sell through an estate agent, they\u2019re required to carry out \u2018know your customer\u2019 (or KYC) checks on buyers and sellers by law.<\/p>\n

They verify names and addresses, identify beneficial owners, ascertain the source of funds, and check they aren\u2019t subject to financial sanctions, amongst other things.<\/p>\n

But a really good agent will always go above and beyond the call of duty.<\/p>\n

We work with hundreds of sellers, buyers and potential buyers every year. We know our area and our local property market like the back of our hand.<\/p>\n

If something doesn\u2019t quite add up, if there\u2019s a distinctly whiffy pong in the air, we\u2019ll be right on the case.<\/p>\n

And we will let you know promptly.<\/p>\n

We need to stress that this kind of case is very rare indeed. Most sales run smoothly, without anything like this happening. But we think you\u2019ll agree it\u2019s better to be safe than sorry.<\/p>\n

While all good estate agents should practice this kind of due diligence, it\u2019s a responsibility that we, as members of the Ethical Agent Network, take very seriously indeed.<\/p>\n

It is part of the professional home-selling service we provide.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s just one of the many advantages of selling your home with a member of the Ethical Agent Network.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re thinking of selling your home and would like a free valuation and market appraisal to help you decide, please give us a call.<\/p>\n

Estate Agency Done Ethically<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many people don\u2019t trust estate agents. We\u2019re trying to fix that.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why we are proud to be a member of the Ethical Agent Network (EAN).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an independent body that checks our work against strict standards for honesty, service, and how we look after our clients, colleagues, and community.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re the only agency locally that\u2019s passed the EAN bar, and we\u2019re assessed every six months to ensure our standards remain high.<\/p>\n

So, if you\u2019re thinking of selling, switching agents, or want straight answers to your questions, talk to us.<\/p>\n

#AgentsYouCanTrust<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You might think that estate agents just sell houses. But there\u2019s much more to it than that. When you\u2019re selling your home, a good estate agent will look out for your interests every step of the way. A recent story in the press reminded us just how important it is to have a real duty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[8,25],"class_list":["post-13009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advice-for-sellers","category-personal-advice-from-our-team","tag-advice","tag-jerry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.craneandco.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.craneandco.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.craneandco.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.craneandco.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.craneandco.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.craneandco.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13010,"href":"https:\/\/www.craneandco.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13009\/revisions\/13010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.craneandco.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.craneandco.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.craneandco.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}