Surveyors and property managers embrace mandatory qualifications move
Both the RICS and The Property Institute welcome new rules requiring all property managing agents to be qualified.
Property managers and surveyors have welcomed proposed new rules for indsutry mandatory qualifications.
A long-awaited consultation on leasehold reform contains a plan to ensure all managing agents have to be qualified in line with part of Lord Best’s RoPA (Regulation of Property Agents) recommendations.
And leaseholders will be given the power to demand a change of managing agent, under the plan after Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook described the current situation as the “wild west”.
Accountability and professionalism in property management is essential to give leaseholders confidence.”
Now, Justin Young, CEO at RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), says: “This announcement is an important step forward in raising standards and improving transparency in the leasehold sector. Accountability and professionalism in property management is essential to give leaseholders confidence.
“Mandatory qualifications for managing agents will help to achieve this. Qualifications alone, however, are only part of the solution,” he adds.
Improve standards
And Andrew Bulmer, CEO at property managers’ membership body The Property Institute, says: “We welcome this wide-reaching consultation, which seeks to improve the lives of residents in shared buildings.
“Measures to improve the transparency of service charges will empower residents with useful information on costs, while mandatory qualifications for property managers are vital to improve standards, and ensure residents get the level of service they deserve.”
We must also ensure that any proposals involve mandatory qualification requirements for sales and letting agent.”
While, Timothy Douglas, Head of Policy and Campaigns at Propertymark, says: “We continue to engage constructively with the UK Government on measures to introduce mandatory qualifications for managing agents. It is vital that professional bodies, continued professional development and a code of practice are utilised as part of the plans.
“We must also ensure that any proposals involve mandatory qualification requirements for sales and letting agents to drive up standards and protect consumers when buying, selling and renting homes regardless of tenure, whilst also forming an integrated blueprint for regulatory reform across the property sector.”
The full consultation is available here
