Material Information A, B and C: What You Must Disclose

Material information is any fact about a property that the average buyer or tenant would need to make an informed transactional decision — and under the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team (NTSELAT) framework it is split into three parts: Part A (price and council tax, always required), Part B (type, tenure, utilities and connectivity, required on every listing), and Part C (issues such as flooding or covenants that only need disclosing where they apply). Failing to disclose it is not a portal etiquette matter — it is a potential breach of consumer protection law, which since 6 April 2025 sits in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

This guide explains what each part requires, how the legal framework changed in 2025, who carries the duty, and what actually happens when material information is left out. It is written for anyone publishing a property listing — estate agents, letting agents, and property sourcers marketing deals to investors.

What is material information?

The concept is not new. Estate and letting agents have always been caught by the prohibition on misleading consumers. What NTSELAT did, working with the property portals and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, was turn an abstract legal duty into a concrete, listable set of fields — so that "I didn't think it was relevant" stops being a defence. The framework was rolled out in phases from 2023, and by 2026 all three parts are expected on listings as a matter of course.

Parts A, B and C explained

The three parts are tiered by how universally they apply. Part A applies to every property with no exceptions. Part B must be established for every property, but the answer varies. Part C only needs disclosing where the issue exists.

Part A — required on every listing

The non-negotiable basics. There is no property where these do not apply:

• Price — the asking price (sales) or rent (lettings), stated clearly and not artificially low to attract enquiries.
• Council tax band (England, Scotland, Wales) or domestic rates (Northern Ireland).
• Tenure — freehold, leasehold, commonhold or shared ownership. For leasehold, this leads directly into the Part B detail below.

Part B — must be established for every property

Information that exists for every property but where the answer differs from one to the next. It must be researched and stated, not skipped:

• Property type and build — house/flat, detached/terraced, and construction materials (relevant for non-standard construction and mortgageability).
• Number and types of rooms, and floor area where available.
• Utilities — electricity, water supply, sewerage, heating type and fuel.
• Broadband and mobile signal — type and predicted speed/coverage.
• Parking — allocated, on-street with permit, garage, or none.
• Accessibility and adaptations — step-free access, ramps, wet rooms.
• For leasehold — lease length remaining, ground rent, service charge, and any major-works liabilities.

Part C — disclose only where it applies

Issues that affect some properties and not others. Where one applies, it is material and must be disclosed; where it genuinely does not, no statement is needed:

• Flood risk and any history of flooding.
• Coastal erosion exposure.
• Mining or other ground stability issues.
• Restrictive covenants, easements and rights of way affecting the property.
• Planning permissions, building regulation matters and listed status / conservation area.
• Known structural or building-safety issues, including cladding status on relevant buildings.

Why it matters: the DMCC Act and the CPRs

The disclosure duty is rooted in consumer protection law, and that law changed its address in 2025. For years the relevant rules lived in the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (the CPRs), which prohibited "misleading actions" (saying something false) and "misleading omissions" (leaving out, hiding, or obscuring material information). On 6 April 2025 those provisions were repealed and re-enacted within the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (the DMCC Act).

For day-to-day practice, the test did not change: you must not mislead the average consumer, by action or by omission. What changed is the enforcement architecture. The DMCC Act gives the Competition and Markets Authority direct enforcement powers — including the ability to decide breaches and impose civil penalties of up to 10% of global annual turnover — without first going to court. That raises the stakes of a sloppy listing considerably.

Who is responsible for providing it?

The professional publishing the listing carries the legal responsibility. The seller or landlord must give accurate facts, but the agent or sourcer cannot simply repeat what they were told and disclaim the rest. The duty includes making reasonable enquiries and being honest about what is and isn't known.

• Seller / landlord: supply accurate information and documents (tenure, lease, certificates, known issues).
• Agent / sourcer: make reasonable enquiries, publish what is established, flag what is unknown, and never present a misleading picture.
• Redress scheme: agents must belong to The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme, which handle consumer complaints about disclosure.

Property sourcers sit squarely inside this. Marketing a deal — even off-market to a private investor list — is a commercial practice, so the same prohibitions on misleading actions and omissions apply. The portal or the privacy of the list does not change the duty.

Consequences of omission

The consequences scale with the severity and the harm caused. They are cumulative rather than alternative — a single bad listing can trigger several at once:

1. Complaint and redress: a consumer complains to The Property Ombudsman or PRS; the scheme can award compensation and require corrective action.
2. Portal action: Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket can remove non-compliant listings and suspend feeds.
3. Trading Standards enforcement: local Trading Standards or the CMA can investigate, issue undertakings, and pursue penalties.
4. Civil penalties: under the DMCC Act, the CMA can impose fines of up to 10% of global turnover for the most serious breaches.
5. Criminal liability: the most serious or deliberate misleading practices can still be prosecuted, with unlimited fines on conviction.
6. Reputational and transactional cost: deals that collapse late because an issue surfaces at conveyancing waste months and goodwill.

The cheapest insurance against all of this is to gather Parts A, B and C up front and to write "not yet known — enquiries ongoing" rather than leaving a field blank. Silence is the trap; an honest "unknown" is not.

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