IEA president Bill Rawson says that, after taking legal advice, the organisation's national board - which published the tariffs on behalf of the eight regional institutes - made the decision in the light of Competition Commission crackdowns on professional and other associations which publish tariffs. The IEA last published tariffs in 2002.

The Competition Commissions regard tariffs in general as a form of price-fixing, and therefore as anti-competitive. During the past year, it has conducted several high-profile investigations into organisations such as law societies and medical associations.

"Our decision was well-timed," says Rawson, "for indeed the Competition Commission have now begun an investigation into the tariff books which we published in the past. We and our regional institutes have provided the Commission with the information which they asked for, and we await their findings."

Rawson says the decision not to re-publish the tariffs should not be blown out of proportion, and nor should it be seen as a green light for estate agents to charge exorbitant commissions. "We must bear in mind," he says, "that the tariffs were never anything more than recommendations - guidelines if you like. They were not compulsory, and no attempt has ever been made to enforce them.

"We must also bear in mind that, since 1993, it has been a punishable offence for any estate agent, whether an IEA member or not, to make out that his commission rates are fixed, or prescribed in any way. Estate agent commissions are negotiable and have always been.

"The seller or landlord who is choosing an estate agent to sell or rent out his property ought, in any case, to agree on the commission before granting the mandate, and if he thinks the estate agent wants to charge too much, he is as free now, as he has always been, to negotiate the commission down to an acceptable level, or take his business elsewhere."