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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OnTheMarket wins claim against Gascoigne Halman in long-awaited tribunal decision
OnTheMarket has won the Competition Appeal Tribunal case it brought against Gascoigne Halman after the agent, following its acquisition in October 2015 by Connells, refused to abide by OnTheMarket’s ‘one other portal rule’. After the ruling OnTheMarket Chief Executive Ian Springett (pictured, below) accused Zoopla of funding the action, and also said that he intended to recoup legal and other court costs from Gascoigne Halman, particularly so because “the manner in which our opponents conducted the case has caused us to divert considerable resources and management time”. Gascoigne Halman said during the hearings that its contract with OnTheMarket was in effect void because what it believed are restrictive clauses within it were in breach of Section 2 of the Competition Act 1988. These include the ‘one other portal rule’ which requires participating agents to only use two property portals, the ‘bricks and mortar rule’ prohibiting online agents from joining OnTheMarket, and the ‘exclusive promotion rule’ that prevents agents from promoting their membership of Rightmove or Zoopla. The legal process was triggered when Gascoigne Halman listed its properties on all three property portals in defiance of OnTheMarket. OnThemarket subsequently sought a judgement on the matter through the tribunal system to prove…
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Exeter agent cautioned by watchdog over use of portal comparison ad
A magazine advert run in a regional magazine by two-branch Exeter agent Wilkinson Grant has been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority by local rival SaleBoards. The advertisement highlighted how Wilkinson Grant lists its properties on “all the leading property websites” including Rightmove and Zoopla but not OnTheMarket.com,. It also claimed that – through the use of photography – vendors listing with it would receive eight times more people looking at the properties online than with rivals. The ad’s headline said “Would you rather your property is seen by this many people OR this many people?”. More buyers The ad went on to say: “Undoubtedly, Rightmove is the most powerful online property portal, but there are other platforms out there capable of putting your property in front of even more buyers. “A vast number of estate agents choose to market property on Rightmove and via the lesser known property portal OnTheMarket, which we think is bad news for vendors as they will be at a tremendous disadvantage if their property is not listed on Zoopla, the second most visited property portal in the UK and Primelocation … We advertise properties on ALL leading online property sites”. Challenge SaleBoards, which like…
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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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