Belvoir, which has 151 franchised offices across the UK, has announced that all of its offices other than the very newest ones now provide Client Money Protection through membership of a recognised body.
Dorian Gonsalves, pictured, director of commercial and franchising, said: “I am incredibly pleased and proud that all Belvoir franchise owners that have been open for longer than 12 months have now achieved 100% membership across the network to NALS, ARLA or RICS.
“This is a fantastic achievement and demonstrates Belvoir’s commitment to maintaining high standards and compliance.
“Ultimately the benefit of this is that our clients are able to deal with Belvoir safe in the knowledge that they are fully protected and have access to consumer redress via an Ombudsman scheme.
“The network has worked in close partnership with the Belvoir audit team to achieve this compliance rate.
“In previous years we have invested heavily to support the network and improve standards, and together we have made significant progress.”
Belvoir said its offices launched in the last 12 months will all be encouraged along the same route.
Here is a classic case where the safety net of CMP insurance would be far more credible, monitored and effective if it were issued by an overseeing Head office rather than the individual offices.
I know I am at odds with most of you in respect of CMP but I do not believe an individual should be able to insure themselves against the wrongs or crimes they might commit.
In this case and I am only using it as an example because the Belvoir PR machine is shouting look at us aren't we great? The client reassurance of CMP ought to be supplied by Dorian and the Belvoir Head office. Effectively saying to landlords as the Head office we are overseeing the franchisees to make sure they are of good character, are complying with our codes of practice and are having their client cash accounts monitored for discrepancies.
There are some notoriously rogue characters in this industry and I am not convinced there is a mechanism in place to stop those Agents setting up in business again and parting with £499 for CMP and disguising themselves amongst the majority of unshakably honest proprietors.
As a random tangent thought on this subject has anyone told Industry Observer that the party has moved to a different venue?
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