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.