Regulation & Law
News articles looking at national legislation and local regulation and the application of law to the residential property industry.
-
War on landlords
The UK Government’s ‘War on Landlords’ has caused buy-tolet sales to collapse, down by 64 per cent in twelve months.
Read More » -
BBC says rogue agents stole £1m of tenant deposits last year
A BBC investigation has claimed that 14 agents across the UK were convicted of stealing over £1m of tenant deposits last year including £400,000 taken in the East Midlands and £220,000 in Hertfordshire. The investigation, which was broadcast last night, places the blame for the high value of stolen deposits during 2016 on the insurance-based versions of the three deposit protection schemes, which enable agents to keep tenants’ deposit without having to lodge deposits with a scheme. The programme includes an interview with tenants’ rights campaigner and Conservative MP for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport, Oliver Colville (pictured, left), who said the situation “is appalling and that there needs to be some action taken and some fines placed on people if they misappropriate those funds”. The BBC TV report also interviewed North-East based letting agent Ajay Jagota of KIS Group (pictured, below), who as well as running a four-branch agency in the North East, has launched his own insurance-industry backed alternative to the official deposit protection schemes, and in the programme calls the problem of stolen deposits the industry’s ‘dirty little secret’. The three government-sanctioned deposit protection schemes, on the other hand, say that cash-based deposits remain popular and, in a…
Read More » -
‘90% of portal juggling has stopped’ claims software expert who helped break scandal
Ninety percent of agents who once engaged in unfair practices in order to manipulate their Rightmove listings and company profiles have now stopped since the portal juggling scandal broke last year, it has been claimed. Robert May, an ex-agent and former Jupix operations director who built the software suite that uncovered the industrial scale on which portal juggling had been taking place, has told The Negotiator that most agents appear to have stopped. “Everyone knows it’s wrong and now those doing it know it’s being detected – a couple of tweets at the right people at the right time made them realise it was serious,” he says. While he was looking at the market, Robert says he discovered there were 11 ways that agents have been ‘gaming’ their listings to the top of Rightmove. These included agents regularly taking all their properties down from Rightmove and then relisting them again to make it look as if they sell within a set period; changing the asking price after a sale has been completed to boost their average ‘achieved asking price’ and ‘double listing’ properties. This enables a single sale to look like two sales. “I admire their spirit but what I…
Read More » -
Has the CML changed its tune on longer tenancies?
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has backed the government’s recent housing White Paper and says there is an “increased appetite” among lenders to advance mortgages to landlords who accommodate renters on longer tenancies. The White Paper sets out how the government is planning to create more secure, longer tenancies for families that would last up to three years and give people ‘the security they need to plan for the future’, Prime Minister Theresa May says in its introduction. Although the initiative has encountered criticism from some quarters of the property industry including eMoov chief execute Russell Quirk, who described the White Paper as ‘recycled rhetoric’, it has been welcomed by most agents and consumer groups including housing charity Shelter. The CML says it is keen to assist the government as it ‘works towards a market in which those renting can find a tenancy to suit their needs’. “Lenders already contribute to the funding of private and social rented housing, as well as owner-occupation, so we welcome and are comfortable with the cross-tenure approach in today’s white paper,” says Paul Smee, the CML’s director general. “We are now ready to work with the government, and with members and others, on the detailed implementation of…
Read More » -
NAEA, ARLA and NAVA ‘rebrand’ as Propertymark
The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) and National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers (NAVA) have jointly relaunched themselves as Propertymark in a move designed to raise awareness about standards within the industry. All three organisations have changed their names and added Propertymark to their logos as of today. A new website is live at: www.propertymark.co.uk. Agents who qualify to be in the scheme and display the Propertymark Protected logo in their branch window must sign up to a range of regulatory, financial and insurance standards, the three organisations say. This will include participation in a branded client money protection scheme, having properly and regularly trained staff regularly updated on legislative change and best practice, adhering to a code of practice, submitting independently audited accounts each year, being a member of a redress scheme and holding professional indemnity insurance. At present customers don’t know where to go for advice or can’t be sure if they are dealing with a professional. We are changing this.” Agents in most areas of the UK are already Propertymark Protected approved including in London Winkworth, Bairstowe Eves, Pedder, Gales, Cooper Giles, James Alexander, Galloways, Beresford International, Douglas & Gordon…
Read More » -
Rogue letting agent jailed after National Trading Standards investigation
A rogue letting agent and landlord in Lancashire has been jailed for three years and nine months after he was convicted at Bolton Crown Court of nine counts of fraud, theft and forgery following a lengthy investigation by the National Trading Standards. Tahir ‘Tony’ Khaliq (pictured, left) operated a string of property companies including several letting agencies which he used as vehicles for his fraudulent activity. The most shocking was the theft of holding deposits of between £200 and £400 from over 100 prospective tenants, many of whom were extremely vulnerable people mainly in the Rochdale, Bury and Oldham areas. Khaliq, with the help of accomplice Paul Dickinson – who received a two-year suspended sentence and 240 hours of community service – took the holding deposits and claimed they were processing fees for unsuccessful tenancy applications. The court heard how one woman, after losing her holding deposit, was forced to move into a Mother and Baby unit, as well as another who experienced extreme financial difficulties while trying to save money to leave her violent and abusive partner. National Trading Standards says Khaliq was involved in other illegal activities relating to his property businesses including forging documents, the theft of…
Read More » -
Housing White Paper: key rental policies revealed
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Sajid Javid (pictured, right) presented the government’s housing White Paper to the Commons today with the aim of fixing the UK’s ‘broken housing market’. During the run-up to Javid’s statement to parliament several ministers including housing minister Gavin Barwell had suggested that the government was keen to break its historical fixation on home ownership and focus instead on the rental market. His preamble to parliament sounded promising. During it he warned that even renting a decent home had become a “distant dream” for many, and that this was the “biggest bar to social progress this country faces”. But there is less evidence of this in the White Paper than many within the industry were expecting, and Javid only referred once to the rental sector in his statement, saying he wanted to “improve safeguards in the private rented sector”. You have to scroll down to page 50 in the White Paper before key measures designed to achieve this aim are found, not quite the seismic change of direction many were expecting. Build to rent The first measure is to encourage more institutional investors to get into in Built to Rent, which is not new,…
Read More » -
Housing White Paper: Is this the week when everything changes?
The Government’s much-anticipated housing White Paper is due out this week and already several government sources including housing minister Gavin Barwell have indicated that a radical shift in policy is to take place. After nearly forty years of preferring and supporting home ownership over renting, several Whitehall sources as well as ministers have indicated they intend to tackle the rental market to make it a more secure housing option. Communities secretary Sajid Javid (pictured, left) said he wanted housing to be more affordable and that the rental market must offer more choice. He described both the rental and ownership markets as ‘broken’. The main thrust of the White Paper is likely to include three-year long family-friendly tenancies, tougher action against rogue landlords, more ‘affordable rent’ properties within new-build developments, as well as more detail on the letting agent fees ban consultation. Gavin Barwell (pictured, right) appeared on BBC1’s Sunday Politics TV programme and, during a grilling by presenter Andrew Neill, admitted that the government’s track record on building affordable homes was ‘embarassing’ and that wanted that to stop that in the future. “Whether you are trying to buy or to rent, housing in this country has become less and less…
Read More » -
62% of letting agents say ban will reduce rental property quality
The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) has come out fighting on the fees ban, saying it opposes a total ban and that fess should instead be spread out over the first six months of the tenancy. It also says a ban is likely to have shocking consequences for the industry, tenants, landlords and the wider economy. ARLA has also completed research that it says shows 42% of letting agents think their headcount will reduce following a total ban, while 62% of the 1008 agents it canvassed think a ban will prompt a reduction in rental property quality, and 61% believe property management standards will drop. The research also reveals that letting agents “overwhelmingly” believe that rents will rise if a total ban is introduced, as they will “need to recoup the costs it takes to undertake the important jobs that fees currently cover [and] pass these on to landlords”, the research says. Agents spend eight hours on average completing the tasks needed to prepare a tenancy agreement including completing credit checks and collecting references, ARLA says. ARLA also claims that spreading the cost of fees to tenants over six months would make tenancies more affordable, enable agents to maintain…
Read More » -
Heavy regulation has been good for Scottish rental market
Heavy regulation of the Scottish rental market in recent years has been a good thing for all concerned, says housing charity Crisis Scotland. After a clamp down on landlords and agents over the past ten years which has included four pieces of legislation, Crisis Scotland claims that all the potential downsides claimed by agents and landlords have failed to materialise. This has included increased responsibilities for and regulation of landlords and agents including an end to ‘no fault’ tenancy terminations, a Repairing Standard to enforce minimum property quality, strict HMO legislation, landlord registration and a ban on letting fees. Neil Guy (pictured), policy and practice manager at the charity, says the legislation has not restricted the growth of Scotland’s privatge rented sector (PRS) over the past ten years and that it has expanded faster than England’s, according to Scottish government housing data. Agents generally agree that the market is robust; for example Fiona Hindshaw of Clyde Property last month said that the “the general consensus across the board in Scotland is that the lettings market [during the final quarter of 2016] demonstrated continued strength and growth when compared to the same period in 2015 and we expect to see this growth…
Read More »
