The incoming President of ARLA Propertymark, Sally Lawson, yesterday entered into talks to surrender the name of one of her companies, The Property Academy.

The name is well known in agency circles as a training and mentoring business run by Peter Knight.

Meanwhile Lawson has underlined that she will continue her training activities during her presidency.

In February last year, according to Companies House, Lawsons Acquisitions changed its name to The Property Academy.

Peter Knight, of The Property Academy, told EYE that it has nothing to do with his own brand.

Knight said yesterday: “I understand that Sally Lawson changed the name of one of her companies to The Property Academy Ltd in early 2016.

“We approached her to ascertain if she was planning on trading with this name which we have established as a brand for many years and have agreed for the name to be transferred and for another name of her choice to be assigned instead.”

Lawson told EYE: “I have owned the dormant ‘Property Academy Limited’ company for a number of years and used this for my new business venture last year.

“The company name was never used for external marketing purposes. I am currently in discussions with Peter Knight over the future of the company name.”

Earlier this week Lawson announced that she has merged her lettings agency, Lawsons, with another business, a branch of the franchise firm she owns, Concentric.

Lawsons, based in the west midlands, has closed its previous office and moved across to the Wolverhampton branch of Concentric, now said to be trading as ‘Concentric Sales and Lettings (incorporating Lawsons)’.

It is one of eight Concentric offices, and is headed by branch manager Dawn Bennett.

Lawson herself said she would continue to be at the forefront of the business, which she says will blend high street and hybrid services.

Two new Concentric outlets are due to open shortly, in Hinckley and Crewe. Concentric itself also changed its name last year, from Concentric Lettings to Concentric Franchise. According to Companies House, the change was notified on November 11.

Lawson, one of two directors of The Property Academy, is also director of Elite Room Training and of NFoPP.

The super-busy Lawson – an inveterate user of Twitter where she promotes her businesses https://twitter.com/sally_lawson?lang=en–  is also founder of Property Agents Circle, described as a “dedicated membership platform designed to offer support, guidance and advice to property agents up and down the country”.

This week she released “growth strategies” for agents to “beat” the tenant fee ban.

The ban is something that ARLA is still actively fighting, amid concerns that it also has to battle perceptions that it is a trade body representing only agents’ interests, and not those of tenants.

We asked Lawson a number of questions, including whether she will be reining back on some of her activities during her time as ARLA Propertymark president.

Her  spokesperson told us: “Property Academy Limited has nothing to do with the letting agency. This is the company Sally uses to offer training to letting agents, mainly focusing on building structure into their businesses and developing their range of marketing and services, to enable growth, including beating the tenant fee ban by replacing the income, by adding additional layers of income and reducing costs.

“Sally will continue training during her presidency.”

The growth strategies you NEED to consider to beat the tenant fee ban