MEMBERS of Kent County Council's Trading Standards department are warning consumers to be on their guard against dishonest sales reps using changes to the building regulations to persuade homeowners to purchase replacement windows unnecessarily.

Since April 1, replacement glazing has been subject to Building Regulations, which among other things, specifies the minimum thermal insulation properties of the windows. This is is to ensure strict national and global energy saving targets are met.

Sarah Hohler, KCC’s cabinet minister for Strategic Planning, said: “The standards apply to replacement glazing installed after April 1 this year. It is simply not the case that existing windows have to be replaced and the new rules do not apply to repairs such as broken windows.”

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THE residential lettings department of Regal Estates in Maidstone has appointed a new manager and senior lettings negotiator.

New manager James Leuschner, recently senior lettings branch manager for Hamptons International, said the advantages the company offered to landlords included “a three-tier quality service with legal advice and an established place in the market.”

He added: “Increased business levels mean greater properties available for prospective tenants, with the same high level of professionalism.”

Mr Leuschner is accompanied by new senior lettings negotiator, Duncan Edgar, who has valuable experience of the Kent and Sussex market gained with John D Wood and C0 and Your Move.

Regal can be contacted on 01622 769995.

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THE first quarter of 2002 saw average arable land prices fall some 7.7 per cent to an average figure of £2,395 per acre, according to Strutt & Parker’s April 2002 Farmland Update.

The survey reveals that there was a significant drop after a rise in average value for two consecutive quarters at the end of 2001.

In the South East, the farmland market has been unexpectedly slow to get under way in 2002.

But those farms that are coming to the market, predominantly residential farms with up to 600 acres, are attracting healthy interest.

An undiminished demand from purchasers outside agriculture is dominating the market, with every indication that this will continue throughout the spring and the summer.

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RURAL property prices within southern England have risen on average by 1.2 per cent in the three months to February 1, according to The Country View, Cluttons’ new research report.

While the shortage of rural properties currently on the market has placed upward pressure on values, conflicting views among buyers and sellers as to who holds the upper hand, have limited price rises.