How listings work
Some places on Check Local show estate and letting agents who cover them. This page explains who they are, why they're there, and — most importantly — what they can't buy.
Businesses pay a flat fee
Agents pay a flat monthly or yearly fee per branch to be listed. That's the whole arrangement. We take no commission on any sale or let, no fee per enquiry, and nothing per click. There is no way for a business to pay us more because you contacted them.
Payment never touches the facts
Area scores, grades, the written Readings, search results and the place finder are all worked out without knowing which businesses are listed or who has paid. That's enforced in how the software is built, not just promised: the parts that score places cannot read listings at all. A place that no agent covers is scored exactly the same way.
When an agent shows an area's score — on their own website, or on their page here — it is the place's score, not a rating of the agent or the property.
Where listings appear
- In a “Local services” section of a place's report, below its scores and topics: never above the scores, never on the map, and never as a pop-up. Each list is marked as paid listings, with a link to this page.
- On your shortlist, when you compare places, and on a place's Match view.
- On the directory pages, such as estate and letting agents by area.
Each firm appears once, however many of its offices cover a place: a firm that sells from one office and lets from another is one entry with both. If you tell us you're buying or renting, we show the firms that do that.
How they're ordered
There are two plans, Listed and Partner, and the plan a firm pays for decides which group it appears in: Partner firms are shown above Listed firms. A Partner firm's entry is the fuller one, with its logo, colours and a short description. Within each plan, the firm with the nearest office comes first, then alphabetical order. Nobody can pay to move up within a plan, no firm can buy a place exclusively, and a section shows at most three firms before “See all”. “Why this order?” under every list says the same.
Who we list
Before a firm appears, we check its company registration and the schemes that matter for what it does — for agents, an approved redress scheme (The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme) and client money protection; for surveyors, RICS; for removals firms, the British Association of Removers where they are members — and link to those registers. A membership a firm tells us about is shown only once we have checked it. That is a check that the firm is who it says it is. It is not a recommendation, and we don't review how any firm treats its customers. If you have a complaint about an agent, their redress scheme is the place to take it.
What agents learn about you
Nothing that identifies you. A listed firm sees how many times its listing was shown and clicked, per day. If you arrived on Check Local from an agent's link, the agent sees a count of visits and sign-ups — never your name, email or anything you told us you need. See the privacy policy.