Associations & Bodies
News and updates from associations and member organisations in the UK residential property industry.
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Former MD of troubled estate agency Humberts joins presidential team of NAEA
The NAEA and ARLA have both ushered in their new presidential teams following the Propertymark annual general meeting and dinner at London’s Savoy hotel on Friday, including the appointment of Ian Westerling (pictured, right) as Vice President of NAEA. Ian recently stepped down as Managing Director of Humberts after the ailing firm was sold to a travel company, and now holds a ‘special projects’ role at the company. He is joined by Mark Bentley (pictured, left) of Birmingham agency Paul Carr who replaces outgoing President Katie Griffin, and Lauren Scott of Whitley Bay firm Trading Places (pictured, below) who is now President Elect. As well as looking forward to meeting the fellow member agents, Mark says he also wants to work “with the Propertymark board in encouraging the government to move forward with their indicated intention to look to regulate the sector and to find a way to speed up the house buying and selling process”. ARLA ARLA’s new team at the top is Peter Savage (pictured, left), who is now the organisation’s president, replacing Sally Lawson. Peter has been ARLA president before during 2015/16 and is chairman of Oxfordshire lettings agency Simplify Housing, the website for which was…
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Landlords increasing rents to pay for extra regulatory costs
Read how ARLA says more landlords are increasing their rents to pay for deluge of new legislation being introduced to regulate and tax the sector.
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CIELA ceases to exist
New trade body failed to gain enough support from independent agents or serious momentum, forcing it to close on 31st March 2018.
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ASA rejects complaint against allAgents
Review site is successful in proving its ‘independent’ status, as used in its advertising and marketing, in a case involving negative Purplebricks reviews.
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Ombudsman Services withdraws from property market to develop “new model” for housing
The provision of redress schemes within the industry looks to be in trouble after one of the three government-approved ombudsman services announced today that it would be pulling out of the property sector. This means that the estate, letting and managing agents currently signed up to Ombudsman Services now have until August 6th to find a new provider. Ombudsman Services, which is based in Warrington and offers complaint handling services across several other sectors including removals, media, communications, energy and copyright, says it no longer wants to offer a “broken solution to a broken market”. But the organisation, rather than exiting the sector entirely, says it is to develop a “new model” for redress in housing. The move appears to be a pre-emptive strike to distance itself from the existing complaints handling structure that operates within the property sector, and to position itself as the next ‘housing ombudsman’ that the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is preparing to establish this Spring. Ombudsman Services says the property industry should copy the finance and energy sectors and feature a single regulator backed by one ombudsman. It is now to quiz consumers on what they want from an ombudsman service…
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RICS to expel members who behaved badly at Presidents Club dinner
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) was hoping to spend this year celebrating its 150th anniversary, but instead it is now busy dealing with the consequences of last month’s The Presidents Club charity black tie do in central London. RICS now says it may expel any member proved to have broken its ethical code of conduct while attending the event, where it is alleged hostesses were propositioned for sex and groped. It is over two weeks since the scandal broke after a Financial Times reporter gained access to the event while posing as an agency hostess, but RICS now says it has been moved to comment about the “inappropriate behaviour towards female hostesses” working at the black-tie do at The Dorchester hotel. This follows the publication of the guest list by The Guardian last week, which revealed that the property industry was heavily represented at The Presidents Club event. In response to this, the venerable institutions says: “RICS does not regulate the entire real estate sector. “As a professional body, RICS has a code of ethical conduct for members of its profession. It applies to all members of the profession, at all times – there is no moment or…
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Tenant Fees Bill is last thing sector needs, Residential Landlords Association tells MPs
A group of MPs leading an investigation into the private rented sector and the draft Tenant Fees Bill got more than they bargained for yesterday afternoon when David Smith (pictured, right), Policy Director at the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) came in to give evidence. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee had convened to hear from the RLA but also the National Landlords Association, a build-to-rent company called PlaceFirst, campaigning group Generation Rent and Citizen’s Advice about how best to police the private rental sector. It’s other task was to find out what the wider world thinks of the proposed lettings fees ban Blunt language David Smith, during a sometimes tour-de-force performance, told the MPs – who included former housing minister Mark Prisk – his views in sometimes blunt language during a two-hour session. His main points, some of which were echoed by the other people giving evidence, were: Fees charged by agents are charged at different levels and employed in varying ways all around the UK, so a blanket ban will be a blunt tool. It’s not true to say fees have been banned in Scotland – they’re now just post-loaded into tenancies, rather than being…
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Finally! CIELA to launch in April and tackle rogue agents head on
The Charter for Independent Estate and Letting Agents or CIELA has revealed that it will launch on 2nd April 2018 despite several false starts. Soft launched in March to gauge levels of support among independent agents, it then announced in June that it had too few members to go to a full launch, then revealed that it would kick off a full membership plan in July before announcing in October that it would cancel everything. CIELA now says it believes there is a place for an organisation because, its recent research among the industry and members shows, many agents view rogue operators as the biggest threat to the industry, not online agents, the tenant fees ban or corporates. In a statement released this morning, CIELA says it believes looming government regulation of the industry via organisation such as the NAEA and ARLA will not be effective. Rogue directory Instead, it is to launch a directory of legally-compliant agents that can be searched by anyone and be used by any agent regardless of size to prove their integrity and download a certificate. A system to enable rogue agents to be reported for non-compliance with industry regulations and relevant UK laws will…
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National Landlords Association hires former publishing boss to lead expansion
The National Landlords Association (NLA) says it has added 42,000 landlords to the total number it helps, an increase from 39,000 to 81,000, over the past five years. Its announcement comes as a new Chairman is revealed – former Archant magazine CEO Adrian Jeakings (pictured, right) who replaces outgoing role holder Carolyn Uphill (pictured, below). The organisation says Carolyn has overseen a significant expansion of the NLA, including the addition of 16,000 paying members to its landlord client list. “The private rented sector has witnessed a lot of change over the last five years,” she says. “Chairing the organisation and watching it grow and develop in such turbulent circumstances has had its challenges, but has been a privilege and an honour.” Adrian joined the NLA’s board of directors in June last year as a non-exec and, as well as his publishing experience, has also worked at the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) and as President of the Newspaper Society and Chairman of the News Media Association. “Carolyn has been a fantastic Chairman, and the growth of the NLA during her tenure has been great to see,” he says. “I’d like to thank her for the all her hard work, and…
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The Charter for Independent Estate and Lettings Agents cancels launch
The dream of a separate membership organisation for non-corporate estate agents is over after The Charter for Independent Estate and Lettings Agents (CIELA) last night announced that too few had signed up to join for a full launch. This follows an announcement in early August that just 5% of agents who had showed an interest in joining the organisation had committed to pay its pre-launch monthly membership fee of £35. CIELA’s flame has burned bright since it kicked off in January this year with a dozen founding members led by property software businessman Charlie Wright. As well as promising to fight the influence of the big corporate agents, unfair practices within the industry and the threat of online agents, CIELA also took on Purplebricks head-on, asking it to withdraw its ‘comparative-fee’ TV advertising and submitting a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority *(ASA) about it. A decision by the ASA about the complaint is due “within weeks”, it says. But despite the founding members (pictured, left) launching a six-month consultation pre-launch period in April that finished on Saturday, CIELA says “insufficient members has been achieved for a full launch”, blaming the current tough trading conditions which it says agents have…
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