A private rental portal backed by the Scottish Government and where landlords can list properties free, has changed its Terms and Conditions.
These now make it clear that agents can advertise on it, alongside landlords.
A spokesperson said agents had always been allowed to list properties, but that the original Terms and Conditions had not made this clear.
The Scottish Government created five ‘hubs’ allowing the 32 local councils in Scotland to run the free listings service.
The move sparked concern among agents, who believed they were not originally able to use the Home Choice sites, and questioned the use of public money in this way.
Concerns were also raised about the role of Local Pad, a private company.
However, alongside the change in Terms and Conditions, there is now a new FAQ section explaining that each Scottish housing hub is given a grant by the Scottish Government to develop housing advice services.
It says: “Although the Scottish government does not tell Hubs how to spend their grant money, it does check that all Hub projects fall within their remit.
“The East Hub, in common with other Scottish Information and Advice Hubs, believes that showing the availability of local private lets through a dedicated website, which can offer a package of tailored support and advice about renting privately, helps to meet our Housing Options advice-giving and homelessness prevention statutory duties.”
The FAQ are here
The Terms and Conditions are here
The main issue here is the Government giving a private firm unrestricted access to their Landlord Data base to market themselves and their products. All Landlords are required to register and free to the data base of this magnitude is therefore “manor from heaven” and a great income stream for the Council as we are advised the private company will be able to use site for advertising third parties.
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Using Scottish Government money allocated to reduce homelessness, these public sector property portals initially completely failed to protect public sector records. This was always the fundamental issue with the original Terms and Conditions.
In addition, many (like me) question the appropriateness of the public sector funding and operating whole of market property portals.
Hopefully the portals will improve from this point and better reflect their funding source – time will tell.
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