By: Nick Salmon
Delegates to the National Approved Letting Scheme conference in London yesterday heard presentations from a rich variety of speakers.
Ian Springett of Agents’ Mutual began the proceedings with an update on the progress of OnTheMarket.
In the course of doing so he asked for a show of hands from the audience to indicate who was aware of the new portal. Given the breadth of coverage this year in the trade press and the fact that the room was filled with industry professionals, it was somewhat surprising that only 20% – 30% appeared to have any knowledge of the new venture. [Clearly we need to get them reading EYE!]
After giving an in-depth appraisal of the disruptive impact on Rightmove and Zoopla that OnTheMarket claims it will have, when it launches on January 26, Springett asked how many people believed they could do without the portals altogether. Only two hands went up.
From the Immigration Enforcement department of the Home Office, Katherine Carr spoke about the effect on letting agents of the provisions of the new Immigration Act, which will compel landlords or their agents to check that a tenant has legal status to be living in the UK.
A pilot scheme begins in the West Midlands from December 1 as a prelude to a national roll-out during 2015. In most cases it will be sufficient for the passport of the prospective tenant to be checked for country of origin, but during questioning from the floor it became clear that there are ‘grey areas’ in the online advice being given by the Home Office via its website.
In particular it was suggested that difficulties may occur where a foreign student secures their rental property months in advance of taking up occupation at the start of a university year.
Was the period in which checks must be made to be measured from the date of signing the agreement or the point at which keys were handed over? After a certain amount of fluster, no clear guidance emerged and one delegate voiced frustration that ‘yet again’ letting agents were being burdened by Government with yet more required procedures.
However, the palpable irritation of the audience increased still further when Ruth Hayes, senior policy adviser to the Department for Communities and Local Government, informed the audience that forthcoming legislation will require letting agents to publish the fees they charge to tenants and landlords.
Some robust questioning followed this revelation as agents protested that their financial relationship with their client, the landlord, was no business of the tenant.
Hayes defended the policy which she insisted would bring transparency and therefore benefit to the consumer. It would enable landlords to shop around for the best deals on fees and would ensure tenants were not ‘double-charged’ for services.
Rather less convincingly, she suggested that if tenants had no interest in what an agent was charging their landlord, they would not read that particular section of the fees notice.
Other speakers through the day included Terence Fane-Saunders, chairman and chief executive of Chelgate PR, who spoke on the management of crises that might threaten a firm’s reputation, and John Baguley from Ombudsman Services – recently recognised as a statutory adjudication scheme for letting and management agents.
Eye’s own associate contributor, Vanessa Warwick of Property Tribes, gave a thought-provoking presentation packed with tips for managing a brand online and how to deal positively with negative comments on social media.
The day came to a close with two excellent motivational speakers.
Steve Bolton, the founder of Platinum Property Partners, outlined his winning formula for making money from a franchise business dealing with houses in multiple occupation AND being able to take three months’ holiday each year.
John Paul, the MD of Castledene Group in the north-east, is an ex-cagefighter, a miner’s son, kidney donor and cancer survivor. His inspirational story of building a successful letting business specifically catering for housing benefit tenants rounded off the packed programme.
NALS chairwoman Sheila Drew Smith praised the delegates for their attendance and their spirited questioning of government department representatives.
“You really got your point over to them,” she said.
See also Vanessa Warwick’s new Landlords Barometer published this morning.
Displaying the fees to landlords and tenants. What next telling us how much we can charge.
These bureaucrats simply don't understand how a simple letting business works. But thanks to all jockeys at LSL who started this mess
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Come on, with regard to immigration why don't they just force us to take on the full responsibility of the Border Agency ? And while we're at it, why not give us control of the government's Housing policy as well ?
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I too was at the conference yesterday. Although interesting I have left with more questions than answers regarding…….
On The Market, How are they going to attract consumers by not offering them the ability to track market trends? Majority of agents are going to leave Zoopla, does this not strengthen Rightmoves market share?…….Immigration act, There needs to be better and more robust guidance after the initial evaluation on impact and process…….Fee Transparency, Is not being transparent to the consumer who the information is relevant to sufficient, tenant fees to tenants, landlord fees to landlords, tax interests to HMRC, Client account details to ARLA, soon we will need to run open book accounting and have our entire process under scrutiny to all that want to look.
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"It would enable landlords to shop around for the best deals on fees". Well that has to be about the worst thing any landlord could do! To my mind, most of the problems have been brought about by agents feeling compelled to reduce their commission charges because too many other agents offer reduced rates – and too many gullible landlords think that the service will be the same no matter what they're charged. For agents it all equates to a lot of lost fee revenue, and when compounded with the extra work being loaded on us by Government year after year, it seems inevitable that agents will start looking for other ways to generate income…
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I too was at yesterday's conference – and a very good day it was!
I think the 'concern' re the lack of hands for Ian Springett's presentation is nothing to make an issue about …. of course we all knew about OTM – he was just first speaker of the morning, and I think most people were still waking up! In fact, I was encouraged by the number of agents who then confirmed they'd already signed up – 100% of delegates on the table I was sitting at!
As for the other speakers:-
A few delegates got a bit wrapped up in the technicalities of the Immigration stuff – hopefully the pilot will iron these out – even if it means agents who are heavily affected changing their working practices slightly. As for publishing fees, again I think the devil will be in the detail (e.g. where they have to be published – but if it stops an agent advertising "we'll manage your property for 5%" and then having a shopping list of 'hidden charges', then I don't have a problem with it?
The PR chap was, I felt, speaking to the wrong audience. I don't think there were many delegates from businesses large enough to have PR consultants or who give TV interviews. John Baguley's brief insight as to the workings of OS – maybe worth some enquiries when our TPO membership comes up for renewal, knowing that there are alternatives available. And Vanessa's tips sent us away thinking we've finally got to get that Facebook & Twitter account up & running!
The motivational speakers in the afternoon were both good in their different ways – something to provoke our thoughts for the long journey home!
Overall a really well-run and worthwhile event.
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The only people who will have an issue with displaying their fees are the ones who are being dishonest.
Nothing to hide, nothing to fear!
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