Associations & Bodies
News and updates from associations and member organisations in the UK residential property industry.
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TPO report reveals one agent’s £21,972 referencing mistake
The value of awards that The Property Ombudsman (TPO) told agents to pay disgruntled customers tripped over £1 million for the first time last year, its annual report reveals, along with details of one case that cost a letting agent over £20,000. Property Ombudsman Katrine Sporle (pictured, right) is to launch the report at an event later today at the House of Lords that will show total awards reaching £1.2 million in 2016 while the number of difficult cases increased by 7.5% to 3,553. Common complaints Lettings attracted the largest number of resolved cases at 1,997 with those complaining being fairly evening split between landlords and tenants. The average letting award was £531 but the highest was £21,972 (see case details below). The most common complaint was about property management. In sales, two thirds of complaints came from sellers and the remainder from buyers and the average award was £397, while the most common complaint was about communication and record keeping. “TPO works with the industry and consumers to get things right, put things right and set things right,” says Katrine. “This year, TPO’s Codes of Practice, approved by Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI), have been revised to clarify many…
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Women fill key positions at Propertymark for first time
ARLA and NAEA Propertymark have revealed who won their recent leadership elections following a secret four-week hustings. Billed as an opportunity that “allows you to shape your organisation and to have your voice heard” the election was for both organisations’ Vice Presidents, whose role is to support the President and President Elect. The elected Vice Presidents are Michelle Niziol for ARLA, who agents will recognise from BBC TV’s The Apprentice from last year, and Lauren Scott for NAEA. It is the first time women have been elected to both positions at the same time. The new line up is: ARLA President Sally Lawson Sally has 27 years’ experience in the lettings industry, and is CEO and Founder of the national lettings franchise Concentric as well as West Midlands lettings agency Lawsons. The two organisations merged recently. President Elect Peter Savage A former professional drummer until the mid-1980s Peter then set up a property business in Spain, which he sold in 1990 and then returned to the UK. He now works as a consultant to an Essex lettings firm and a block management firm. Vice President Michelle Niziol Until recently 35-year-old Michelle was best known as a founder of IMS,…
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CIELA launch unlikely now as agents stay away
The Charter for Independent Estate and Letting Agents (CIELA) says it is unlikely to launch on October 1st as planned. The announcement comes after just 5% of agents who pre-registered with the organisation signed up to pay its pre-launch £35 a month memberships fee. CIELA, which revealed its plans begin a new mutual body for independent agents in January this year, says it has yet to attract enough paying members to be able to launch. “While we have received very strong vocal support, thousands of agents visiting our website and much encouragement from agents and suppliers we meet, this is not translating into membership sign-ups,” says CIELA founder Charles Wright. “Less than 5% of the hundreds of agents who pre-registered with us declaring their support when we first announced our intention to form have actually proceeded to join.” “It seems to be a case of chicken and egg. Everyone agrees the independent industry needs a collective voice to improve its national reputation, but hardly anyone seems willing to risk even £35 a month to support it. “The wait-and-see problem will cause CIELA to die before launch, unless it’s overcome. Everyone is waiting for everyone else to join first. Or, there…
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Right to rent is “dangerous, divisive and must be scrapped” says RLA
The government’s Right to Rent checks introduced in February 2016 have been heavily criticised by the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) following research among its members. Launched today, the research reveals that nearly half of its member landlords are less likely to rent a property to someone without a passport. “This is a dangerous and divisive policy that is causing discrimination. It must be scrapped,” says the RLA’s Policy Director David Smith. The Right to Rent checks, which were designed to help prevent those without permission to be in the UK to rent a property, are also affecting the 17% of UK adults in the UK who don’t have a passport, the RLA says. Right to Rent has also made landlords more cautious about renting their property to non UK citizens in general; 51% of landlords questioned said they were less likely to considering letting a property to foreigner arriving into the UK whether they have the right to rent here or not. And as uncertainty of Brexit continues, nearly a quarter of the landlords said they were less likely to consider renting their property to someone from the EU. But the research suggests that, rather than being xenophobic landlords are…
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SW agents’ group says online operators are driving up fall-throughs
A recent increase in the house sales fall-through rate is due in part to the rise in cheap online listing agents, says South West independent agent network The Experts in Property (TEiP). Chairman Steve Moir (pictured, below) says he believes the current high fall-through rate, which he says is 34% among all agents in the UK compared to between 25% and 30% in 2010, is down to online agents working less hard in preventing fall-throughs. He also says the fall-through rate within his network of agents is just 10%, and reveals that his members have begun offering to pay the upfront fees of vendors who have failed to sell their homes through an online agent. “We are on a mission to demonstrate that the traditional full-service estate agent is better and at the end of the day, more cost effective than online listing agents, with less stress and disappointment, all the way to a move, and we are prepared to take a hit to prove the point,” he says. Youtube video To make these points, Steve has launched a video on YouTube as part of the campaign. TEiP, which represents 80 traditional agents, has produced the “hard-hitting campaign” because its members…
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Senior industry leader questions experience of new housing minister
The Guild of Property Professionals’ CEO Ian McKenzie, fresh from announcing the landmark deal between his organisation and online agent easyProperty, has voiced his doubts about the new housing minister Alok Sharma (pictured, right). Sharma, who is MP for Reading West, was revealed as the new Housing Minister yesterday afternoon but apart from his tweets saying how honoured he is to get the job, there are few official announcements except for the initial and brief list published on the No.10 website. He has also been plunged in the deep end following the tragic events within Grenfell Tower in London, where so far up to six people are feared to have died following last night’s catastrophic fire. Ian McKenzie (pictured, left) points out that Sharma is the sixth housing minister in seven years and, although he welcomed the appointment after a five-day wait following the initial cabinet re-shuffle, he says he is “concerned by Alok Sharma’s lack of industry experience”. Housing crisis “There’s no doubt that his background in accountancy will help with the role, but the housing market is in crisis,” say Ian. “We need a government representative who will stand up for the industry. I hope that Sharma can…
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Guild and online agent easyProperty merge in £60m deal
The Guild of Property Professionals has struck a £60m deal with online agent easyProperty.com to enable its 5,000 members to use the website’s online sales and lettings packages. The deal, which will complete later this month, also merges the Guild’s parent company GPEA, which also owns 300-branch network Fine & Country, with easyProperty, to be called e-Prop Services. The new company will be headed up by GPEA executive director Jon Cooke(pictured, below) who will also be CEO of e-Prop, while easyProperty founder Rob Elice (pictured, left) will remain with easyProperty. He says the Guild and Fine & Country members will be able to target a wider range of sellers and in particular those at the lower end of the market, who are largely the price-sensitive bread and butter of the online agents. “This deal allows our independent agents to offer more consumer choice with sales and lettings products catering to both the do-it-yourself and the do-it-for-me vendor and landlord preferences. “We recognise the market requires and demands both online products and traditional methods. What I’d like to stress is this newly merged business is the convergence of traditional estate agency and online. “Effectively we are providing independent agents the ability…
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NAEA rebuffs calls to halt election for Vice President
An attempt to halt the voting process for the post of Vice President of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) has been turned down by Chief Executive Mark Hayward in an email sent to SW-based agent Chris Wood yesterday. In it Mark confirms that he and the NAEA Propertymark board had been made aware of Chris’s request to halt the election process, and that they were also aware of the new processes in place to elect the Vice President, and other posts. The email also says Mark and the board were aware of Chris’s concerns about the process but were “completely satisfied that the process was correct and robust [and that] therefore the election will go forward in the normal manner. Final response Mark also said it would be the NAEA’s final response with Chris prior to the AGM on June 16. On Wednesday Chris had previously written to Mark asking him to confirm whether due processes was adhered to and suggesting that the NAEA appeared to “be playing for time” and wanted to “obfuscate due process”. Chris Wood was one of several agents proposed for the Vice President role but, following a panel interview, not proposed as a…
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Newport landlord is first to be fined for non-compliance with Rent Smart Wales
The first fine has been issued to a landlord for not being registered or licenced under the Rent Smart Wales scheme. Landlords who rent out properties in Wales have, since November 2016, been required to register with Rent Smart Wales and must now provide information about both themselves and their properties. Also, landlords must also either have a licence to be a landlord in Wales, or use a letting or managing agent who is licenced. Rent Smart Wales The first landlord to be collared by the scheme is Robert Ivor Grovell who lives in the village of Llanfrechfa outside Newport. After being successfully prosecuted Grovell must now pay £4,400 both for failing to comply with Rent Smart Wales but also for operating a “dangerous, unlicensed house in multiple occupation”, the organisation says. He must also pay costs of £1,000 and a victim surcharge of £170. Non-compliance Grovell was prosecuted under Section 7(5) of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 at Newport Magistrates court for his non-compliance. The offence was one of a number brought against him by Newport City Council for housing-related offences at a property on Orchard Street in Newport to which he pleaded guilty. In December last year Environmental…
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More landlords using letting agents, research shows
The doom mongers who said escalating costs for landlords created by the recent tax squeeze and the looming letting fees ban would encourage more to self-manage appear to be wrong. Research by the National Landlords Association (NLA) among property investors has revealed that more landlords are now using agents than last year, particularly in outer London, the South East and Wales. Just over 60% of the 800 property investors it quizzed said they currently use a letting agent, an increase of seven percent when compared to the final quarter of 2016. Annual increase The NLA said this is an unusual increase because the proportion of landlords who use agents has remained steady in recent years, rising by only one percent between 2014 and 2016 to 54%. This has created a corresponding drop in the number of those who self-manage their properties, which has slumped by 10% since the end of last year. “As landlords plan ahead to compensate for the tax changes over the next few years we would expect to see the number who use an agent to slowly fall away, and for more to start considering whether they are able to manage their properties themselves,” says Richard Lambert, CEO…
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