Regulation & Law
News articles looking at national legislation and local regulation and the application of law to the residential property industry.
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Estate agents must do more to stop mortgage fraud, warns senior legal expert
Estate agents need to do more to prevent mortgage fraud by being more aware of the riskiest properties and transactions, and having a better understanding of the anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, leading property lawyer Peter Rodd has told The Negotiator. Peter, who is a Council member of The Law Society and works for Kent legal firm Boys & Maughan, says too few agents fully understand their anti-money laundering (AML) obligations and that if they did, being one of the best-placed stakeholders in the conveyancing process, this in turn would help reduced the number of mortgage fraud cases. “If estate agents were more aware of what signifies a high-risk transaction – i.e. high value, unencumbered, empty or tenanted properties particularly where the seller is looking for a quick sale and prepared to accept a discounted price for the property, then we might be in a better place,” says Peter. “Good knowledge of the AML regulations plays a part in preventing fraud, so estate agencies ought to be trying to do their basic AML checks properly, or some extra ones, and although it’s not going to be a foolproof solution, if the various stakeholders work together better to share information then it…
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Councils contributing to homelessness
"Councils are contributing to homelessness. Unfair? Sadly not, says Adam Walker, as they only take responsibility for a tenant once he’s out on the street."
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“Switching utility providers without the tenant’s agreement can trigger a major storm”, says Katrine Sporle, The Property Ombudsman.
Switching utility providers without the tenant’s agreement can trigger a major storm, says Katrine Sporle, The Property Ombudsman.
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Hamilton Fraser buys Paul Shamplina’s Landlord Action
TV star Paul Shamplina’s tenant eviction solicitor firm Landlord Action has been bought by a subsidiary of Hamilton Fraser, the Hertfordshire-based landlord insurance group. The Landlord Action legal team, along with Paul, will relocate from their current offices in Edgware to Hamilton Fraser’s HQ in Borehamwood. Paul started up Landlord Action in 1999 as the UK’s first fixed-fee tenant eviction firm and so far has processed some 35,000 tenant cases. The award-winning company, which played a role in persuading the government to make some forms of squatting a criminal office in 2012, gained Solicitors Regulation Authority status four years ago. The acquisition makes Hamilton Fraser unusual in the property industry, mainly because it now has so many fingers in the property pie. This includes offering landlord insurance as well as professional indemnity insurance to landlords and agents. It also operates one of the three government-approved deposit protection schemes, called mydeposits. Hamilton Fraser also operates Client Money Protect while its subsidiary HF Resolution, which it has used to buy Landlord Action, operates one of the industry’s redress schemes, PRS. Nightmare tenants Paul has been a busy recently. As well as being a brand ambassador for Hamilton Fraser and running Landlord Action,…
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Fees ban consultation was just “tick box exercise” says ARLA
The Queen’s Speech today contained a promise to introduce a letting fees ban for both agents and landlords and “promote fairness and transparency in the housing market”. But in a surprise move, the government also revealed that it is to cap deposits at one week’s rent, rather than the six weeks’ rent that is most common within the sector at the moment. But the measures announced in the Queen’s Speech have been criticised by ARLA Propertymark, which describes them as “disappointing”. “It’s unlikely the Government had enough time to analyse all of the responses from the consultation, as it only closed 12 working days ago, on the 2nd June,” says David Cox, its Chief Executive (pictured, left). “It appears they had already made their decision and therefore the consultation was no more than a ‘tick box’ exercise and they haven’t appropriately taken the industry’s views into account. “A ban on letting agent fees will cost the sector jobs, make buy-to-let investment even less attractive, and ultimately result in the costs being passed on to tenants.” David also believes that, given the amount of work letting agents put into preparing tenancies and managing properties, it is “only right and proportionate that…
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Make inventory reports compulsory and regulated, says trade body
...because if fewer landlords and agents use inventories after the fees ban, deposit protection will be rendered pointless, says AICC
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London borough cracks down on short-term lets via Airbnb
Renting out a property via Airbnb has become a useful source of income for tens of thousands of landlords in London, and several agents including Portico have branched out to service this new short term lets management market. But one London borough is striking back after experiencing a deluge of Airbnb listings by its leaseholders and tenants. Southwark has revealed that it saw a 139% increase in the number of homes rented via Airbnb since the Deregulation Act 2015 loosened the rules for short-term lets of up to 90 days. Before the new regulations were introduced, leaseholders in London had to seek planning permission before being able to rent their properties out via home ‘sharing’ websites such as Airbnb. Now, Southwark says it is to clamp down on its leaseholders and tenants who advertise their properties on Airbnb. Beach of conditions Leaflets are being sent to both groups to remind them that “renting out their homes on any short-term holiday let website breaches the conditions of their lease and could result in legal action”, it says. People who have purcahsed properties from Southwark via Right to Buy are being reminded that their leaseholds stipulate that their homes should not be “used…
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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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Fair Fees Forum calls time on weak lettings industry regulation
The time for stronger regulation of the industry to stop rogue agents, landlords and tenants has come, says the Fair Fees Forum set up by the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) last year to tackle the threat of a letting fee ban. These should include, it says, better and more consistent Local Authority policing of the industry, tougher measures for rogue agents and the accreditation of referencing companies to help prevent bogus and repeat-offending tenants. The announcement followed a meeting held on Wednesday in a secret location attended by representatives from many of the industry’s leading firms including the three deposit schemes, NALS, RICS, the RLA and agents Chestertons, Countrywide, Hamptons, Spicerhaart, Winkworth and Connells Group. Fair Fees Forum The main problems that the Fair Fees Forum identified include patchy and sometimes non-existent policing of rogue agents, landlords and agents which has led to a regulatory housing ‘postcode lottery’ in the UK in which different authorities apply different resources to enforcing existing housing industry regulations. Members of the Fair Fees Forum also want there to be greater effort to bring rogue agents either back “into the fold” or to permanently exclude them, rather than the current system of patchy temporary…
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New Housing Minister is Alok Sharma, MP Reading West
The new Minister for Housing and Planning is Alok Sharma, MP, Reading West. Mr Sharma retained his seat with a majority of 2876 in last week’s election. First elected in 2010 for Reading West, with one of the largest swings to the Conservatives in the country, Alok has served as a member of the Commons Treasury select committee, a member of the Commons Science and Technology select committee, a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Treasury and from 2012-15 as a Conservative Party Vice Chairman. Alok was appointed in 2016 as the Prime Minister’s Infrastructure Envoy India. He also serves as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster who has overall responsibility for the Cabinet Office. Alok is also Co-Chairman of Conservative Friends of India. Prior to entering Parliament, Alok qualified as a chartered accountant with Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte, and then worked for 16 years within investment banking, first with the Japanese firm Nikko Securities and then SE Banken, where he held senior roles based out of London, Stockholm and Frankfurt, including serving as a member of the bank’s Corporate Finance Global Management Committee.
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