ESTATE AGENT INTERNET SYSTEMS

Arunkumar Marepally(u0853756)
Vijay Shivarathri(u0853758)
Rama Krishna Nagubadi(u0847053)

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 Table of contents

Abstract 3
Introduction 4
Terminology Used 5
Legal, Ethical and Social Issues 8
Early requirements model 15
Late requirements model 19
Architectural Design Model 20

Conclusion 22
References 23

Abstract

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 An agent is a person who arranges business deals for the other
people. Estate agents work with property. Property is land and anything built
on that land. They also help people who want to buy a property. People who
want to sell their property are called sellers; people who want to buy a
property are called buyers.
Many people dream of owing a home. When deciding to buy a place of
their own, most people begin by looking at properties in the area where they
want to live. This is where they meet Estate agents. Some property owners
choose to rent out, or let, their property, rather than sell it. Some estate
agents work in the residential market. These agents sell or let property such
as houses, townhouses and flats. Other agents work in the commercial
market. These agents sell or let property such as shops, factories and offices.

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 Introduction

The Case study that is being discussed here for its ethical, legal,
professional and social issues in Estate Agents Internet systems. Estate
Agents Internet Systems are the computerized systems that give information
to the customers about the available Flats, houses, villas for sale and rent.
The information about the Estate agents and the available Flats, houses,
villas are displayed in the website and this is accessed by web users from
anywhere with the access to internet. The Estate agents internet systems are
mainly of great use to the customers who are willing to either buy a new
house or to rent a house.
In our case study we have used sec tro tool for designing the secure
analysis. We have followed the early requirements model, late requirements
model and architectural design model to design the diagram using the sec tro
tool.
• Tropos covers the early stages of requirements analysis. It also helps
to understand better the interactions that will occur in the system
between the software agents and the humans.
• Second, Tropes covers the full range of the software development
phases from the early analysis to the actual implementation and
testing.

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 Terminology used

Actor: An actor is something or someone who supplies a stimulus to the

system. An actor cannot be controlled by the system and is defined as being
outside the system.

Goal: A designated attribute: determining the values of one or more goal

attributes is the objective of interacting with a rule based expert system.

Sub goals: is used to define non-functional requirements. It’s usually a quality

attribute of one of the intentional elements

Task: a set of program instructions that is loaded in memory

Resource: A resource, or system resource, is any physical or virtual

component of limited availability within a computer system. Every device
connected to a computer system is a resource. Every internal system
component is a resource

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Social issues

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 Social Questions Answers Ratings
Who will the project Buyers, sellers,
impact on? solicitors, estate agents
How will it impact on It will impact both
them? positive and negative on
the customers.
What benefits will it Easy to access the site 2
bring to them/their from any where through
community? internet.
How will it benefit them? User saves valuable
time by searching the
website.
To what extent will it Ease of access. 1
benefit them?
What negative things Misusing the users data. -3
will it bring to them/their
community?
How will this negativity Customer may loose his
impact on them? personal details.
To what extent will it be Extraction of bank -3
negative? details.
Any ideas for Customers need to 1
compensating for the approach authorised
negative with benefits? estate agents
To what extent do you 1
consider the above
questions are accurate?
TOTAL -1

Ethical issues:

Ethical questions Answers Ratings

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Will people be asked to No
behave in ways outside
their acceptable
standards?
How is it different from All the norms and 0
their norm? regulations are equal for
all estate agencies

To what extent is this Estate agents should not 0

outside their norm? cross the legal norms
What percentage of their Wrong information about -3
lives will be altered? the property and price
How might they react to Legal action -1
this?
How have people Direct contact with the -1
responded in the past? agent
Any ideas for Customers should 1
compensating for the approach genuine
negative with benefits? agents

To what extent do you 2

consider your answers
to above questions are
accurate?

Total -2

Legal issues:

Legal Questions Answers Ratings

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What laws are relevant Copy right law, Law of
to the project? confidence, Design
rights, Trade marks and
passing off.
How many laws Four laws -3
involved?

How much do we Customers are not -2

understand the law? much aware of the laws

How many countries More than two countries 2

involved?
How many times might lack of knowledge about -1
we be running close to law makes customers
the law? close to law
How many times might Quite often -2
we be in danger of
slipping outside the
law?
What are the Facing legal action -2
consequences of
slipping outside the
law?
Any ideas for Taking advice from the 1
compensating for the legal solicitors
negative with benefits?
To what extent do you 3
consider your answers
to above questions are
accurate?
Total -4

PROFESSIONAL ISSUES:

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 According to our coursework and ratings to the issues the professional
issues has positive impact on estate agents internet systems. The software
estate agents internet systems will create employment which in turn is a
positive aspect leading to employment for people who are seeking a career in
estate agency. There are related courses which gives all the information
about estate agents.
The professional issues will not encourage any kind of bad behaviour
unless the estate agency follows all the norms and regulations.

Issues Ratings Student name and id

legal issue -4 Marepally arunkumar
reddy
Ethical issue -2 Shivarathri Vijay
Social issue -1 Nagubadi rama krishna

Legal issues MAREPALLY ARUN KUMAR

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• Issues related to the right of way regarding the ownership of the
information.
• Issues about the information theft that is possible with the information
being sent over the internet.
• Legal solicitor should be consulted in order to prevent the legal risks.
• Copyright infringement.
• Debt collection.
• Property must be free of defects.
• E- Commerce.
• Distance selling regulations.
• Paying deposit.

According to our case study there are many legal issues

effecting estate agency. Issues such as acceptable material should be
used in the construction of houses. Another major issue that needs to
be addressed is the legal procedures regarding the information theft
over the internet and hacking laws.

As there are overseas customers who will contact

the estate agency through internet they may not be aware of legal
issues of the property so they must seek an assistance of the legal
solicitors. To save the time and expenses, and travelling from different
countries the customers should give the power of attorney to the
solicitor to sign documents on their behalf.

There are four laws protecting the creative works, commercial

goodwill, information and trademarks.
The first law is Copyright law which protects from copying. The estate
agents must copyright their own creative works such as their website
name and their policies.

The second law is law of Confidence which protects information, trade

secrets, and contents of database. The information which is produced

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by the seller to the agency must be confidential and same in the case
of buyers.

The third law is law relating to designs which protects the registered
designs. The website for estate agents has particularly their own
symbols or designs which must be protected.

The fourth law is Trade marks and passing off through which the estate
agents can protect their own trade marks as these marks may be in
respect of goods or services.

E-commerce is about selling goods and services via internet. The

buyer, seller and the estate agents are not face to face at any point. As
far as e-commerce transactions are concerned, the legislation is
primarily intended to ensure that online contracts are legally binding.
The distance selling regulations 2000 are mainly to protect the
overseas customers who are not physically present at the time of
purchase.

Another issue is that the seller’s information about the

property such as repairs problems, problems regarding supply of water,
gas, electricity (section: 11, landlord and tenant act1985) and legal
problems involving about the property are obligated to disclose the
information which is against the law.
The buyers should cross check about the property
papers such as encumbrances e.g. mortgages or loans or any
outstanding debts. It is important to obtain a certificate from the local
land registry confirming that the property is free from encumbrances.
The buyers should ensure that there are no debts against the property
and are cleared before buying the property. The buyers should also
check for official tax documents issued by the local tax office showing
the actual value of the property.

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 One more legal issue which is taking place in estate agency is that the
buyers are asked to pay the deposit as soon as they sign the papers.
But legally once the seven day cooling off period ends then the buyers
can pay the deposit.

References:
Software and Intellectual Property Protection, Copyright and Patent issues for
Computer and Legal Professionals. By Bernard A. Galler
Legal Issues in Property Valuation and Taxation: Cases and Materials
By Joan M. Youngman

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/.htm

http://www.hmso.gov.uk/.html
www.patent.gov.uk/.pdf
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/.s=tl
http://www.naeba.org.htm
http://www.port.ac.uk/

Ethical issues SHIVARATHRI VIJAY

The term ethics has many shades. Ethical would mean doing the right thing. If
taken in a negative manner it means manipulating your work procedures. High
ethical standards require in estate agencies to conform to sound moral values
and principles. Estate agents ethics relate to rules, standards and moral
principles regarding what is right or wrong in specific situations.
The estate agents should concentrate on delicate issues such
as race, religion, creed, colour, national origin, sex, age, ancestry, in among
other situations, the “term, conditions or privileges of such accommodations”.
The statute also provides that its language should be “construed liberally” for
the accomplishment of company goals. (gnerre case 1988,p.284).

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 Each estate agent has their own policies but same norms and
regulations. Every estate should follow the norms in order to support the
customers. Estate agents should never have racial feelings towards
customers. Estate agents should not give false information about the property,
so that the customer faces problem and their lives may be altered in many
ways. For example if the information about the property with issues are given
as property with no issues and later customer needs to face the problems like
water supply, electricity, tax etc.

There are many ethical issues but it is helpful to focus on just four ethical
issues that are related to estate agents.
1. privacy
2. accuracy
3. property
4. accessibility

Privacy - privacy in estate agents website deals with information about the
property and the details regarding the buyers, sellers and solicitors. The
estate agents should strictly keep the information private as there is hacking
problems for all the online websites.

Accuracy - accuracy in estate agencies is a must. If the information is

misused and is given inaccurately about the property and the buyers blindly
trust the estate agents and it is the responsibility of the sellers to maintain a
good record of the property and following all the rules according to the law.

Property – one of the most complex issues we face today is the question of
intellectual property rights. Here the estate agents hold all the details
regarding the property and details of customers. There are several imperfect
institutions that try to protect the intellectual property rights. Copyrights,
patent, encryption oaths of confidentiality trust worthiness and loyalty are the
most commonly used protectors of intellectual property.

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Access – estate agents have to be restricting access, in order to obtain the
customers, solicitors information to the unauthorised users. Based on the
importance of the user the accessibility facilities have to be granted. To
access ethically those situations where intellectual property rights conflict with
public access rights with regards to estate agents customer information.
Estate agency customers have the access to the information about the
available properties (Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I, New York, 1968)
As we have already mentioned, estate agent ethical misconduct has become
a major concern in business today. Estate agent ethics comprises the policies
and standards that guide their behaviour in the business environment. Estate
agent specific action is judged by customers, employees, investors, solicitors
etc.
References:

• Capurro, R. (2000). Ethical challenges of the information society in the

21st century. International Information & Library Review, 32(3/4), 257-
276.
• Frické, M., Mathiesen, K. & Fallis, D. (2000). The ethical
presuppositions behind the library bill of rights, The Library Quarterly,
70(4), 468-491.
• Vaagan, R. (Ed.). (2002). The ethics of librarianship: an international
survey.

Social issues NAGUBADI RAMA KRISHNA

Some of the social issues are

• Privacy and confidentiality issues
• Ownership issue
• Security.
• Accessibility issues.
• Power to do without adequate knowledge.
• Control authority.
Social Issues that are related to our project are confidentiality, security,
efficiency, reliability, accessibility. Estate agent project impacts on seller,

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buyer, solicitor, investor etc. Benefits that it will bring to the customers are
direct access to the agency through internet from any where. Estate
agents have to control authority from unauthorised access using
authorised access and by increasing the security by efficient software
engineers. Security is the main issue and it estate agency has to balance
between the efficiency and efficacy.

Estate agency has to maintain privacy with respect to internet and relate to
agreement. When the agency is requesting the personal information from
the customers the agreement has to be clear to the customers and must
provide choices whether to reveal the information. Estate agents should
not divulge the customers, solicitors, and investor’s information in order to
increase the business and maintain confidentiality about the customer
details. Obviously customers are concerned about maintaining their
privacy and to protect the data about them from cyber criminal activities.
(Swinyard,Rinne & kau,1990)

Ownership is a crucial issue in the information technology age. Piracy is a

complex issue that estate agents should deal with. Estate agents should
not support unauthorised users to use the customer’s data illegally, so that
the customers will be in trouble once if there data has been hacked. Estate
agents should not reveal the personal information of the customers with
out their permission other than for purchase of the properties for them.
(Boehm et al.,1978;mccall,1979)

Estate agent need to provide efficient information to the customers instead

of providing fake information for the customers. The agents should
increase the efficiency by replacing the staff with technology and with
efficient software engineers. Quality plays a pivotal role in defining the
good and bad practices towards the customers.

Freedom of speech has always been of concern to a broad cross

section of the populace. Even today freedom of speech issues is hotly
contested with the bans and destruction of paintings, sculptures, and

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writings. The customers can access the web without adequate knowledge
about the web but dealing with online payments or any transactions the
users must know all the rules and regulations involved in it.
Ease of access to the estate agency through internet helps people find the
property from overseas. But there are many issues regarding which the
customers especially overseas customers should consult a legal adviser
who can guide the customer find a property with no legal issues.

Another main issue is encryption of data where the data can

be altered which results in problem to the users. Estate agents should
prioritise in helping the customers by providing proper information with the
acceptable standards in the society, based on the range of the customer’s
estate agents should segregate the customers and the properties. Estate
agents should do more to handle the above mentioned social issues.
References:
• Neuhaus, Paul ; Van Fleet, Connie ; Wallace, Danny P .
• Amy j.Hillman and Gerald D.Keim,(Feb.,2001),pp,125-139.
• (Swinyard,W.R.Rinne,H and kau,A.K.1990)The morality of software
iracy:journal of Business ,9,655.
• Social responsibility in the information age by Gurpreet Dillon.

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 Actor diagram for estate agents

Actors: buyer, seller, company, council, employee and solicitor.

Goals: sell, buy, council tax check, legal advice, checks details.

Constraints: valid or not

Actor diagram: In estate agent internet system there are mainly six types of actor’s
seller, buyer, company, council, employee and the solicitor.
Company provides the needful information for both the seller and the buyer. Buyer
enquires about council tax from the council; solicitor provides legal matters to buyers
if any. Employee keeps the information of the customers and sellers in a secured
manner.

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 Goal diagram for Agent

Actor: agent, seller, database, buyer.

Hard goal: receives order, provides wap service, process order, keeps customer
details confidential, make a deal.
Plan: wap browser, web request, receives request, sent request, extract property
details, and check the customer details.
Soft goal: checks for the availability property.
Resources: wap request message, response message, web request message.

Agent diagram: the agent receives orders from the customers through web requests,
provides web services, receives request from the wap request message. Agent gets
data from the database and extracts required data for the customer process the order
and keeps the customer details confidential after extracting property details and
checks the customer details and finally makes a deal with the buyer and seller.

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 Goal diagram for seller

System: website database

Actor: seller
Hard goals: receives order, selection of property, what kind of property, regular user,
office employee, finalise the property, buyer.
Plan: regular user, login/password, different types of properties, buildings, flats,
houses.

Goal diagram for seller: estate agent receives order after entering the username and
password. After that seller will select the property type either it is building, flat, house
and after selecting that the officer of the estate agent looks after the details of the
seller whether appropriate and finalises the property to the buyer.

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 Goal diagram for buyer

Actor: buyer
Goals: selection of property, receiving property, employee, make an order, agent
Plan: login/password, different types of properties, flats, houses, apartment.

Buyer will select the properties after using the username and password, which are of
different types like flats, houses, apartments and gives the details to the data base and
after that employee will get information from the buyer and estate agent will make a
deal between the buyer and seller.

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 Late Requirements diagram

Actors: buyer, seller, estate agent website, agent, solicitor, council

Hard goal: receives property, employee, make an order, delivery property,
information about the property, checks the data, process information, provides web
service, receives property, checks for the council tax, updates the website, check
properties, takes legal advice.

Buyer will makes an order through estate agent website and estate agent keeps the
customer details confidential, employee approaches to the buyer and finally buyer
receives property. Buyer takes the legal advices from the solicitor if he requires and
also the buyer checks the details from the council about the properties council tax and
needed.

Seller deliveries the property to estate agent website and informs about the property.
Agent checks the data from the website and process the information and provides web
services, receives property.

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 Decomposition diagram
System: estate agent
Actors: solicitor, buyer, seller, staff, security manager, availability manager, integrity
manager, council.
Hard goal: assistance regarding legal issues, enquiry about council tax, provide
access to the seller, meeting with customer, provide access to buyer, performs
authorisation checks, ensure data availability, ensure data integrity.

Estate agent: provides access to the buyers, provides access to the sellers, performs
authorisation checks done by the security manager, ensure data availability from
availability manager, ensure data integrity provided by the integrity manager, meeting
with the customers and staff, enquires about council tax with the council, assistance
regarding legal issues given by the solicitor.

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 Conclusion

In conclusion the Estate agents internet system is the easy way to approach the estate
agents and to find a property by saving time, travel expenses etc. the estate agents
internet systems is now taking a good life across the globe. It is more comfortable to
the overseas customers also to buy or rent a property.
The system should be set up in such a way that the customer does not
face any issues while purchasing or selling the property.
This system can be success only if the agents follow all the norms and
regulations and go legally. This system is the fastest and the easiest way of finding
property where the customer wants to live. There will be no Ethical, legal, social,
professional issues when the estate agents follow the law.

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REFERENCES

Capurro, R. (2000). Ethical challenges of the information society in the

21st century. International Information & Library Review, 32(3/4), 257-276.

Frické, M., Mathiesen, K. & Fallis, D. (2000). The ethical presuppositions

behind the library bill of rights, The Library Quarterly, 70(4), 468-491.

Vaagan, R. (Ed.). (2002). The ethics of librarianship: an international

survey

Neuhaus, Paul ; Van Fleet, Connie ; Wallace, Danny P .

Amy j.Hillman and Gerald D.Keim,(Feb.,2001),pp,125-139.
(Swinyard,W.R.Rinne,H and kau,A.K.1990)The morality of software
iracy:journal of Business ,9,655.
Social responsibility in the information age by Gurpreet Dillon..

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/.htm
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/.html
www.patent.gov.uk/.pdf
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/.s=tl
http://www.naeba.org.htm
http://www.port.ac.uk/

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