A furious agent has written to his MP in protest about the way the industry is being ‘squeezed’.
Adam McHenry, director and head of sales at Cadman Homes in Rugby, said that estate and letting agencies are being battered from all sides.
He particularly cited the tenant fees ban, Right to Rent, and the 250% rise in anti-money laundering costs.
McHenry said in his letter that the tenant fee ban was a “headline grabbing policy that is ill thought through”.
He described it as “severely detrimental to our industry which has become a scapegoat for the wrongs and ruin of our failed housing policy and current social and private housing shortage”.
He went on to say that with increased legislation, costs and pressure on compliance, “we are being squeezed from both sides – profit and turnover”.
On the tenant fees ban, he said: “A lawyer can still charge a fee to complete and execute a tenancy agreement, so why can’t I?”
Of the hike in AML costs, McHenry said: “If the Government wishes agents to be unpaid Home Office officials, then please bear in mind that you’ve just stripped us of 30% of our turnover by banning tenant fees; decreased the supply of buy-to-let properties by forcing a number of landlords to sell up because of the new taxes you’ve imposed on them; and decreased our profitability by imposing tax increases on directors’ dividends.
“With Parliament’s failure to agree on Brexit, there is also massive uncertainty and negativity in the market(s) including the housing market.
“An increase in the fee we have to pay, purely to appease HMRC and register to perform their due diligence, is beyond the pale and simply not acceptable.
“The Government should look closer to home if it wants to tackle tax evasion and money laundering through city institutions and creative corporate accounting, not bash local businesses such as humble agents in the provinces.
“This government was, sadly, helped into power by myself and other voters within the industry.
“You were our best chance of getting this country back on track following years of mismanagement and overspending.
“We now feel that the hand that feeds you has not just been bitten, but devoured.”
Captain my captain. This man deserves much respect.
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Full respect from me, he said what we all know, unfortunately, it will probably fall on deaf ears!
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We should all take a copy of this and send it to our own MPs. Sooner or later they’re going have to deal with other business and there’s no chance I’d be able to put it any better myself.
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What a star this guy is. If only the whole industry were writing such letters to their MP every week! I’d like to see that!!
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I went to see my MP and told him this face to face. He completely agreed with me and said he would raise it with the ministers responsible. 4 months later I got a copy and paste email made up of the rhetoric from the Housing lot… Very disappointed… But unfortunately I’m not sure what would happen if there was an Independent majority in an election, and since I cannot stand Corbyn and blame Labour for a lot of the issues we face in the way of financial mismanagement, it looks like Tory is the only choice to vote for in the local elections coming up. I do want to know who they are planning to get to replace poor Mrs May though, I think she has done the best job she can under the circumstances…
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Lets face it we dont have a choice, do you pick the candidates to vote for in either the local or general elections , thats a big fat no you are told to make a vote its your right as a Uk citizen , but the choice is theirs not yours they just let you think its a free choice candidates are chosen by their members not the man in the street , those people who think they know whats best for you and the country , here are the three main parties pick one it doesnt matter as we will renaig on our promises and do just as we like, now i know there are others but 10 votes for the keep britain green party isnt going to make a lasting difference to anyone.
The government has lost its way and are desperate to appease anyone with significat voting power , hense the downtrodden tenants of this fine country of ours that strongly belive that we do not deserved to be paid for a good service that most of us provide .
The tenant fee ban was generally of our own making, we as an industry have historically never stuck together for fearing we may lose out to a competitor, anti cartel laws etc etc as an industry we are subject to more regulations than any other , rightmove has rinsed us the government see us as an easy target to act as immigration officers , tax collectors proceeds of crime investigators etc etc they want us to work for free whilst all the time squeezing our industry until theres nothing left, this government want us gone and a labour government ?? Well that wont end well for us either.
Whats the solution?? a little bit of commen sense wouldnt go a miss but no such thing exists in the world of politics.
Sorry rant over
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Thank you! Means a lot.
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Independent Agent or Independent MP? If MP, what would happen if the Independents got a majority vote in a general election by the way?
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Adam, a fine letter, not dissimilar to one that I wrote to my MP who didn’t bother to reply! Deltic2130, we tried something similar when fee ban and S24 first was muted, I drew up individual letters for each of my landlords to sign, each individually addressed to their own MP, the result was a standard letter to each written and cc’d by a civil servant basically saying “tough!”
The idea of us all writing each week is great but I suspect that no letters will get past the civil servants to the MP’s, I have no idea how we would get the message across. I’ve looked at newspaper campaigns but very expensive for a 1 day hit.
The main issue is that all in government are scrabbling for votes and there are more tenants than landlords this time around , maybe next time the balance will be redressed as there simply will not be enough housing for the voting tenants but, I have to say that by then I will have retired as will many landlord and agents. My first btl will be up for sale this summer, another is currently being refurbished, not sure what my plans are there and a 3rd will cost me virtually nothing to keep empty.
Not only is the hand that fed devoured Adam, I think we’re past the elbow, fast approaching the shoulder !
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Why don’t you take the signed letters and Landlord representatives to your MP’s next constituency surgery. They are open forums to raise any issue you wish directly to your MP. They cannot palm you off on civil servants and as they are public meetings they can be filmed and put up online. Good Luck
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S21 is the next target to bash the hell out of landlords. Because we are all “small fry” the fools in Government bully us. It will never happen but perhaps if they bring forward legislation to abolish S21 EVERY landlord should serve S21 notices on ALL their tenants and see how well Government deal with re-housing the millions! This constant landlord bashing by lunitic charities, idiot policians leaves me feeling demonised despite always letting my properties in model condition! All of this is due to those in power abusing it, failing in their housing provision. I see the conservative party as a risk to my wellbeing, I see Labour as something much worse, as do some other religions. I praise Mr McHenry’s letter but those in Government are so self serving they have not even managed to do that which the electrorate instructed them to do.
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>“A lawyer can still charge a fee to complete and execute a tenancy agreement, so why can’t I?”
Isn’t it simply a matter of getting the landlord to pay? Isn’t setting up an AST already included in the cost to a Landlord in most cases when a tenant is found by an Agent?
Agents just need to pass the cost on to landlords which of course they won’t be able to do if they’ve been charging both for the same service.
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Not really, the amount of work a good agent does for the tenant deserves a fair fee, and if landlords are going to have to bear too much more cost then, compounded by the other guff they have to put up with at the moment, there will be an even bigger exodus from the PRS.
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A furious agent has to write to an MP when industry bodies should have been defending agent’s right to charge for their services from the beginning of this debacle.
There are so many businesses and services that this ban should now set a precedent for, but to implement banning their fees would be an impossible task. Some of which are Civil Service initiatives, like for example….
The government is refusing to pay the £65 fee for EU nationals employed in the civil service to register their right to remain in the UK. (Source, The Guardian).
Is this not an application fee to allow you to live in the country that is your new home?
Hypocrisy of the highest order.
I will never vote for this conservative government, who have allowed themselves to be so worried by the early interest in Corbyn’s l**ny left that they have become anti-capitalist, but their double-standards doesn’t include them or their cronies.
Neither will I vote Labour under the current leadership, like they weren’t bad enough at managing the economy before they had a staunch socialist in charge.
The saddest part of all this political vote-winning pandering is that the very people it proposes to help will be the worst affected. Not just in increased costs, but the levels of service agents are able to offer them with their finances cut off.
That said, once they have finished delaying Brexit until such time that they can overturn it, democracy will be dead and nothing they say, or any legislation they pass will have any meaning. Unless of course our democracy has always been a Wolf in Lambs clothing.
Establishment embarrassment!
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But who else is there? Lib Dems have all but vanished as far as I can see, UKIP also don’t seem like a viable alternative…
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Agreed, British politics is a shambles. Protest votes got us here in the first place and they have learned nothing.
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