The private rental sector will suffer if the industry doesn’t work together to end confusion around the tenant fees ban, Endsleigh has warned.
The insurer warned that the ban could lead to increased costs in other areas and warned referencing and insurance could be hit as lettings agents and landlords seek cheaper alternatives to mitigate the lost income.
Speaking as letting agents gather in London today for the ARLA Propertymark Conference, Endsleigh said letting agents, partners and the Government must work together to bring clarity to the proposals.
David Hadden, head of Endsleigh Let, said: “The private rental sector is currently in limbo waiting for further details on the fee ban but the topic appears to have fallen off the agenda, causing confusion for both letting agents and tenants.
“As a partner to the sector, we’re keen for this discussion to move forward so that the lettings industry can properly assess and address the likely impacts of these changes.
“Our lettings customers have told us how concerned they are about these changes and what it means for the private rental sector. Poor quality referencing could lead to higher eviction numbers and longer void periods.
“This, in turn, could affect connected insurances such as rent guarantee, with the likelihood of claims to be perceived as increasing, premiums would surely follow suit.”
There is no confusion….the government wants a fee ban, but they have a lot of other things going on at the moment. Also because they are clueless they don’t know how they will implement it and exactly what it will or will not cover. Agents have their fees stated/advertised in the right areas so there shouldn’t be any confusion at all. Pretty sure this is an insurance company who is finding it hard how to insurance against the future rather than them worrying about consumers.
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What about landlords?
The private rented sector is about landlords, not letting agents.
Agents can only charge fees that landlords authorise.
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I think you’ll find the PRS is “about” a whole range of industry’s and people, from landlords and tenant, to tradesman, inventory clerks, insurance companies, a mortage providers. Instabillity in the market place has implications that reach far and wide. Decisive action is what is called for from Propertymark (ARLA) and Government. It has been 6 months since the chancellor announced a fee ban, and we are no further forward. At that time Brexit was already on the cards, so their “we are busy excuse” is just that, and excuse!
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The PRS includes some private landlords who never use agents. We know several of them who charge fees to applicants as well as fees throughout the tenancy. In their rush to be seen as the ‘good guys’ and smack the ‘nasty’ agents by banning their fees charged for work which the landlord asks to be done, what are our esteemed ‘leaders’ planning to do about this glaring anomaly?
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