Agencies & People
News covering the businesses, activities, people and personalities in estate agency and letting agency and wider residential property industry.
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Excellent start for Emson
Clive Emson has sold land and property worth more than £13 million at its first sale of 2017.
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High profile agent withdraws London Underground ad after complaint
Sales and letting agent Martyn Gerrard has withdrawn a London Underground poster ad after a complaint from a member of the public. The ad, pictured below, which to some people might seem like a feel-good and innocent piece of advertising creative, featured two children – a boy at the top of a flight of stairs and a girl sliding down the stairs in a washing basket while wearing a cycling helmet and swimming goggles. The strapline for the advert was “oMG…that was a good move…Making your next big move more enjoyable”. The north London agent, which has 14 branches and was established in 1964, re-branded recently and has been advertising in the capital to support this with a series of ads featuring goggle-wearing children enjoying ‘good moves’ – including a girl clutching a toy rocket. But the latest one clearly didn’t amuse one member of the public. Complaint They complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the poster ad was likely to “condone or encourage children to copy an unsafe practice and whether the ad was also likely to be responsible”. “We contacted the advertiser about the concerns raised and they agreed to remove the ad from circulation,” an…
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Humberts to build up lettings operation once more
Senior industry figure Suzanne Diamond has joined Humberts as the company begins rolling out lettings – again – beyond its existing but exclusively rural network of 23 sales offices. The appointment of Suzanne to establish a lettings business brings Humberts full circle. The company, which split from Chesterton three years ago, at the time sold its entire lettings operation to Hamptons International for an undisclosed sum ahead of its relaunch in the Summer of 2014. Suzanne has had an illustrious 14-year career in property. This has included a long spell at John D Wood where she headed up their Weybridge office. Her performance at John D Wood marked her out as a rising star and she took part in Countrywide’s senior management training programme during the early noughties. In 2013 she was national runner up at Countrywide annual awards for attaining the largest branch income growth. But Suzanne then moved to Curchods, an independent agency in Surrey with 21 branches where she was tasked with growing their lettings business, and was later promoted to Group Lettings Director after setting up and growing a lettings operation for sister company Burns & Webber, also based in Surrey. “I am extremely passionate about Lettings…
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Braemore acquires Click-Let
Braemore Sales and Lettings has acquired the Edinburgh lettings business, Click-Let.
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Rogue letting agent jailed after stealing holding deposits worth £15,000
A “thoroughly dishonest” rogue letting agent in Croydon, South London has been jailed for failing to pay back holding deposits often for the same property and totalling £15,000 following a two-week trial. Thirugnanaselvam Damayantharan, also known as Mr Damo, was sentenced to 19 months in jail for the offences, which included taking multiple deposits for the same property, letting properties he had no authority to do so and failing to return deposits when tenancies fell through, despite being through no fault of the tenant. At the court hearing the letting agent denied two counts of fraudulently trading as two companies – See Own Properties and My Lawn Estates – over the past six years, although the unreturned holdings deposits related to 33 properties. See Own Properties, which is still trading but the annual accounts for which are overdue, is registered at a Regus office facility in central Croydon (pictured, left). My Lawn Estates, which advertised on Rightmove but has now been removed but is still listed as ‘active’ at Companies House, was expelled from The Property Ombudsman in 2015 for two years. During the case, which was brought by Croydon Council Trading Standards, the court heard that Damayantharan, who was…
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Will conveyancing reform proposals see return of HIPs?
House moving is about to undergo a considerable revolution if a new set of plans to reform the UK conveyancing process come to pass – including plans to introduce a version of HIPs. The proposals are within the Conveyancing Association’s (CA) plans to shake up the conveyancing process published today. The association, which represents conveyancing firms, intends to improve almost all the sticking areas of the process that enrage so many vendors and buyers and frustrate agents as completion dates lengthen. Firstly, it wants to add ‘certainty’ to the black hole that is the conveyancing process at the moment as well as help stamp out fraud and upgrade the quality of communication during the process. To achieve this the CA says it will work with the whole property industry including estate agents to develop and implement its plans, partly because several of its proposals (see below) will require some heavy lobbying of government to get laws and regulations amended. The proposals In a nutshell, the CA’s plan document includes proposals to develop a centralised and improved ID verification process, introduce a HIPS-style ‘E-Home’ report prior to property marketing and a standardised reservation agreement for new homes sales. Other proposals include…
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Badger Holdings invests heavily in digital landlord and tenant online services
The parent company of Townends and Regents Estate Agents, Badger Holdings, has launched an online lettings portal for its landlords, and signed up to Fixflo at the same time, in what is a major digital push for the group. Townends has 21 branches in London and Surrey and Regents has six, also in Surrey. Landlord clients of the two companies will now be able to see more clearly what’s going on with their tenancies, Badger Holdings says, including the ability to examine digital contracts, tenants’ details, online statements, pending work orders and downloadable inventories, EPCs and deposit certificates. Tenants being managed by Townends and Regents branch staff will now be able to flag up repairs and maintenance problems directly through Fixflo’s online reporting system. Badger Holdings believes this has “[been] proven to revolutionise repairs reporting for the residential lettings industry, helping agents provide a more streamlined service,” it says. Caroline Kavanagh, Director of Operations of Badger Holdings, (pictured, above) says “The provision of a comprehensive repairs handling process is essential to every lettings and management service. “Adopting new methods which capitalise on the ways in which people are choosing to manage more and more aspects of their daily life is…
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Fine & Country opens in Malta
Fine & Country has opened a new office in Malta. Fine & Country Malta, covering the whole island, concentrating mainly on the North-East.
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Suspended jail term for developer, landlord and former agent following HMRC probe
A landlord, developer and former estate agent with links to one of the UK’s better-known franchisee agencies has been convicted of tax fraud following an HMRC investigation. Michael Charles Waddingham, 44, was sentenced on Friday to two years in prison suspended for two years and has been ordered to pay back £281,000 in unpaid tax, plus a fine of £200,000. The court case and conviction followed an investigation that found Waddingham had not submitted tax returns between 2008 and 2012. He failed to declare rental income from 17 properties as well as income from seven land and property development companies from which he earned over £100,000, the court heard. These included property development firm Chantry Estates (London) Ltd and land and property development company Chantry Estates (South East) Ltd of London (W2). The HMRC says Waddingham was also employed in Teddington for an undisclosed estate agent between 2007 and 2012 where he paid tax as a PAYE employee. After being arrested in 2015, HMRC forensic accountants worked with Waddingham’s accountants to work out how much he would have to repay, and he admitted the fraud on 17th January of this year. Waddingham, who is also a part owner of several racehorses,…
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John D Wood finishes gobbling up Countrywide stablemate Faron Sutaria
42-year-old London estate agency Faron Sutaria has disappeared for good following the completion of its merger with John D Wood. The company’s former shopfronts have now been replaced with John D Wood branded facades (see right and below). The move is part of parent company Countrywide’s plans to rationalise its branch network, which the plc says has so far saved it £3.5 million. The merger of Faron Sutaria was originally announced last month and since then its seven branches being added to the John D Wood network. These include its former branches in South Kensington, Sloane Square, Earl’s Court, Notting Hill, Fulham Broadway, Shepherd’s Bush and Islington. “I am delighted to have spearheaded the recent modernisation of John D Wood & Co. and now the merger of Faron Sutaria, bringing these two London estate agencies together,” says Tim van der Schyff, Head of Lettings at John D Wood. The new offices, refurbished in the fresh modern style John D Wood & Co. have [now been] rolled out across the network, look fantastic and are being very well received by our customers, colleagues and visitors.“ John D Wood also recently had six other Countrywide stablemates added to its network, and Alan de Maid, Hetheringtons,…
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