By Tina Walsh, Founder and CEO of NAPSA
As part of our mission to improve the property sourcing and deal packaging sector, we are here to announce our brand-new training platform; bringing together years of expert knowledge, experience and credibility. It’s an incredibly exciting up for our team and members, who will no doubt benefit from trustworthy and easy-to-follow guidance to help them in every step of their sourcing business.
Firstly, What is NAPSA?
The National Association of Professional Sourcing Agents (NAPSA) has been established for over 3 years and was created to provide property sourcing and deal packaging agents across the UK with access to a bespoke platform of information, support and guidance covering all aspects of the property investment sector.
NAPSA is officially partnered with both government approved property redress schemes, The Property Ombudsman (TPO) and Property Redress (PRS) as well as working closely with National Trading Standards Estate and Lettings Team (NTSELAT) and HMRC’s AML Team.
NAPSA works tirelessly to professionalise the property sourcing and deal packaging sector, whilst also helping to protect property investors from unscrupulous agents.
What is NAPSA Education?
NAPSA Education provides bespoke quality online training and resources tailored to property sourcers and deal packagers. Whether you’re setting up your business or ensuring you’re operating compliantly, our expert support team are here to guide you every step of the way.
Visit here: www.education.napsa.org.uk
What Support is Given?
The training programmes through NAPSA Education start at just £1 (Inc VAT) and go up to £1,207 (+VAT), the highest priced course gives you everything that you need to set up and run a fully compliant sourcing or deal packaging business in the UK and includes 12 months NAPSA Membership which provides 1:1 support and guidance to all members.
Why has NAPSA Education Been Created?
It has been apparent for some years that the training available for the property sourcing and deal packaging sector has fallen far short of what was needed to keep agents fully informed about what was legally required of them, not just in setting up their businesses but also in the day-to-day running of them; leaving agents incredibly vulnerable to being fined by supervisory bodies.
The cost of some of these courses available runs to many thousands of pounds, often with little or no support after the course finishes.
HMRC Issues Fines to Sourcing Agents for Breaches of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Regulations
HMRC regularly issue detailed reports of the fines issued by them to those companies who are supervised by them for breaches found in their AML policies, risk assessments, controls and procedures as well as those agents who have failed to register for supervision and should have done so.
Their latest report covers the periods from 1st October 2024 and 31st March 2025 and if you read the report you will see that 194 Estate Agency businesses or EABs in the report were issued with fines during that period.
It is a legal requirement for all property sourcing agents and deal packagers to register with HMRC for Money Laundering supervision, and when they register, they do so as an estate agency business or EAB.
Of the 194 EABs fined, it is easy to see from a simple search of the term ‘Sourcing’ that three of them were property sourcing agents with the highest fine being £3,900 for failing to have registered at the required time.
We will be going through HMRC’s report in detail to isolate all of the sourcing agents given fines and will publish the results in due course.
Your link to see HMRC’s Fines Report: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/businesses-not-complying-with-money-laundering-regulation…
Trustworthy and Reliable Training – More Important Than Ever
NAPSA Education is now even more important to the property sourcing and deal packaging sector, with the number and level of fines being issued to those agents and the fact that the size of some of these fines could easily bankrupt a business just getting started, who received poor quality or in complete training and guidance as to what would have prevented them being fined.
If you have any concerns about your business, or not sure where to start, please get in touch with us here: https://www.napsa.org.uk/contact-us/
