Agents are being invited to take part in a national online survey which launches today as part of the Government’s review into whether to make Client Money Protection insurance mandatory for letting agents.
The Property Ombudsman scheme offered to undertake the UK-wide survey following discussions with Baroness Hayter, joint chair of the DCLG review into CMP.
While CMP insurance is not currently a legal requirement, many professional bodies make it mandatory for membership. TPO will be asking those agents to find out more about how they handle client funds, and targeting the thousands of firms that are not affiliated with a professional body to provide an industry-wide overview of the issue.
The survey is being supported by SAFEagent, which has led industry calls to make CMP a legal requirement for lettings agents, along with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, and the Property Redress Scheme, which will be sharing the survey with their members.
Katrine Sporle, property ombudsman, said: “This will be the largest lettings survey of its kind, which aims to provide an industry-wide viewpoint on CMP and the best possible evidence base to Baroness Hayter and the CMP Working Party.
“We have purposely made the online survey anonymous so agents can answer the questions honestly to ensure we get a true reflection of what measures agents currently have in place to protect client funds.
“It takes just a few minutes to complete and the answers provided are completely anonymous. All agents have to do is state whether they have CMP cover and answer a few simple questions about how they currently handle client funds.”
The survey will also touch on the Consumer Rights Act 2015, to establish how many firms are displaying their CMP cover on their website and in their branches.
Sporle added: “The success of the survey hinges on industry-wide participation – especially from those firms who do not belong to a professional body where CMP cover is already a mandatory requirement.”
In a joint statement, Mark Hayward, managing director of NAEA and David Cox, managing director of ARLA, said: “NAEA and ARLA have been leading the campaign for mandatory client money protection as it is our firm belief that there should be a level playing field for all operating in the sector.”
The findings will be presented to the CMP Working Group, which was launched following the introduction of the Housing & Planning Act 2016. The Act includes a provision that allows the housing minister to make CMP cover mandatory for letting agents.
The survey is open to all letting agents regardless of whether they have CMP insurance or not. To take part, please visit: https://secure.crtviewpoint.com/Online/Survey/43ea59cd-bc1d-46e5-a707-6b9a9e6e6598
The survey will run from today until Friday, September 16.
Its a rhetorical question right?
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We have had CMP for many years.
We have seen a disreputable agent in the same city fold taking people’s money with them.
What’s the delay?
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almost every week there is case of client misappropriation. Only a fraction make it in to the press. CMP is available for TPOS members at http://www.lonsdaleib.com/our-business/property-professionals/
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Can some define CMP cover in context of what is acceptable? I know what it is covering, but surprisingly it can be obtained and may already be provided in different forms of insurance cover which some agents may find they have, without knowing it and not just a specific stand alone insurance policy.
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Fraud and dishonesty of employee is covered under most PI policies, however it shall not include client misappropriation of the principal of the business which is what the CMP protection is designed to do.
i hope this helps.
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The best way to get client money protection is for the agent to join a membership scheme which provides CMP to the clients of the agent such as ARLA, UKALA, NALs or the increasingly popular Client Money Protect (www.clientmoneyprotect.co.uk). PRS and mydeposits offer preferential complaint and protection fees to members of these schemes. Given the legal requirement to tell your customer if you have CMP but not PI, if the agent has CMP as part of a PI policy the clients are very unlikely to know that the CMP is available to them. There are also no public lists of members for those policies so the client cannot verify if they are protected. Interestingly there is also a question as to whether it is even legal for the principals of the agency to be able to insure against their own criminality which stealing client money is. You couldn’t insure yourself against robbing a bank!
– Eddie Hooker, CEO of Hamilton Fraser
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for agents who do not necessarily want to be part of a trade body membership yet would like CMP, there is a solution via the ‘increasingly popular’ PI + CMP scheme, exclusively for members of TPOS. The consumer has additional protection through the TPOS code of conduct and the comfort that TPOS police their agents have PI. In the unlikely event an agent using the PI + CMP scheme does not display they have CMP in line with the Consumer Rights Act, the consumer can verify whether the agent has CMP via TPOS direct or the PI + CMP scheme.
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