Anyone with a grievance against an estate agent will now be able to thump the table with a resounding "I told you so". The long-awaited report from the Office of Fair Trading on the estate-agency industry found widespread dissatisfaction from buyers and sellers, with a litany of charges from poor service to illegal practices.

PROPERTY OWNERS who have only a leasehold interest in their home will find it easier to acquire the freehold, under a housing shake-up announced by the Government yesterday.

ESTATE AGENTS who exploit Britain's buoyant property market to take housebuyers for a ride could be banned, the Office of Fair Trading said yesterday.

JARVIS, THE maintenance and facilities management group yesterday saw its shares jump 6 per cent to 317.5p, as it announced its contract dispute with Railtrack had been solved.

Not all estate agents are quite as bad as their reputation suggests. As this week's Nationwide Estate Agency Office of the Year awards prove, there are great agents out there - and they can turn the difficult process of buying or selling your home into a positive pleasure. By Penny Jackson

Leaseholders are rising up at last against corrupt and exploitative landlords. By Karen Woolfson

Leaseholders have won an historic victory in their war against landlords.

UNITED UTILITIES, the North-west-based electricity and water group, is ready to consider spinning off of its facilities management arm, Vertex, and its telecoms management operation in a few years' time. Finance director Bob Ferguson said yesterday that a partial sale of the businesses would be considered.

SERCO, the facility management group, dismissed market speculation that the company may issue a profits warning in December, as its shares slumped a further 6 per cent. The fall in Serco's share price from a peak of 1,447p in July accelerated after three directors sold 240,000 shares on 30 September.

If service charges are not properly submitted, complain. The law is on your side.

ONE OF Britain's most upmarket estate agents has become entangled in a row over plans to develop one of Dorset's finest estates, which is designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty by government heritage bodies.

Someone renting a property agreed to help his landlord sell it and ended up earning himself a commission that would makes most estate agents drool. Robert Liebman investigates

Reforms to the leasehold system should put a stop to `institutionalised racketeering'. By Karen Woolfson

Sir: Your report "Britain's fifth-richest woman turns screw on tenants" (18 May) puts an outrageous emphasis on the fact that the landlord is a woman, and the clear implication is that women, even in big business, are supposed to be intrinsically kinder than this. A woman who puts market forces ahead of her social conscience seems to be news in itself.