Industry to protect tenants from "rogue agents"
By Steven Davies
A body that represents letting agents launched a new scheme last week designed to protect tenants from unethical practices in the industry.
Agents who belong to the Association of Residential Letting Agents (Arla) will have to abide by a new code of practice, meaning they will have to secure professional qualifications and set aside time to make sure these are up to date.
Arla members now require a licence to let property, and must be qualified in lettings management. They also have to spend 12 hours a year refreshing their qualification.
The scheme also sees the introduction of a compulsory protection scheme for tenants' money held by agents, indemnity insurance for agents, an independent redress scheme to work alongside the industry ombudsman, and compulsory annual audits.
The move from Arla comes at a time when the Government is looking at tightening up the rules on all agents in a forthcoming green paper.
Speaking in the House of Commons last week, housing minister Iain Wright praised Arla's scheme.
He said: "Many letting agents operate with great professionalism and there are ways of seeking redress when these standards haven't been met, but we have to go further.
"Arla's new scheme will promote greater professionalism and increase consumer confidence."
At its launch, 20 MPs signed a register backing the scheme. It was also welcomed by homeless charity Shelter and the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Ruth Lilley, head of membership and professional development at Arla, said: "Arla has lobbied the Government for 10 years to assist us in establishing higher industry standards.
"For too long the rental sector has been seen as the black sheep of the property market with a lack of regulation. This licensing scheme will create the gold standard for letting in the UK."
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It is high time the government acted. However, who will control those agents not registered with ARLA? (membership is not mandatory and the industry unregulated).
Our recent experience a case in point:
- A Canary Wharf letting agent show us a property for which they have no agreement with the landlord
- They fail to mention that there will be hefty fees charged to the tenant (in addition to 15-17% they charge the landlord).
- We were pressured into paying a deposit to block the property we liked (the only property we saw through these agents).
- Only after they received the payment did they care to mention the agency fees - which was unacceptable to us and so we were unwilling to go forward with the property.
- However they have refused to make a full refund despite not having an agreement to act on the landlord's behalf.
- They are not registered with ARLA, so Iain Wright needs to do more for such rogue agencies. They and their agents need to be barred from practicing for a number of years for them to adopt ethical practices.
While we are writing to the housing minister and also initiated action against the agents, that puts the onus of extracting justice on the consumers, not on the agents.
Your paper can help by publishing the prevalant industry bad practices, and naming and shaming the agencies who are part of this racket.