Ministers, property industry leaders and regulators have chopped and change over the past three decades but one organisation has been a constant.

Safeagent, the accreditation scheme for lettings and managing agents, has now been serving the industry for 25 years and, at its helm for almost all of this time, has been Isobel Thomson.

She has seen it morph from an organisation solely focussed on – at first – solving the ‘empty homes’ problem and launched as the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) by a housing minister in 2000.

Initially it was funded by Whitehall but only on the proviso that it provided a Client Money Protection for agents who were not member of RICS or ARLA Propertymark.

But it has moved on to have a much broader remit as an independent organisation with some 2,000 industry members, offering a ‘single badge’ for landlords and tenants looking for agents who are accredited to offer the best service and highest standards within the industry.

The Neg sat down with her for a chat about its big wins and what the future holds for both it and the letting and property management agents who are its members.

CMP milestone

Perhaps its most famous achievement was when, it 2019, CMP became compulsory for the property industry, a campaign that it led for many years as NALS and, soon afterwards, changed to Safeagent.

“It’s not about us, it’s not about me, it’s all about the agents,!” she says. “Because we’re only as good as our agents.”

The organisation has deep contacts within the industry – a celebratory lunch in London recently included representatives from Rent Smart Wales, The Property Institute and Trading Standards, to name a few.

Client accounts

Another area it has campaigned on has been the problematical issues of banks withdrawing – often without notice – agents’ client bank accounts, a key requirement of being a member of a CMP scheme.
It liaised closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to get UK Finance – the lenders’ trade organisation – to get action from the banks on this problem but says the battle was made harder by the monolithic nature of the big high street banks.

“The message finally got through and this situation is appreciably better,” she says.

“We also adapted our criteria to adapt to the problem of client accounts – because we couldn’t carry on asking agents to have a client account before they joined us, when the banks were demanding they joined a CMP scheme before getting an account,” she adds.

“We now give agents two to four weeks to get their client account once they gain accreditation.

“Our agents know that we understand the difficulties they are facing and that’s why I think they like our scheme, along with our application process and our staff.”

Licensing boom

One area of perhaps unintended activity is the huge growth in recently of property licensing – both additional and selective. Many if not most schemes give reduced fees to agents and landlords if they are members of an accredited membership or accreditation scheme, and Thomson says part of her organisation’s role now is to liaise with each council’s consultation prior to schemes going live.

She is also sure that the Renters’ Right Bill, which many within the sector fear, will be a big opportunity.

“I think many landlords are wondering how they are going the manage the big changes coming with the Bill and, particularly if they are one-property operators, this is where agents can win business – as long as they are knowledgeable, trained and competent and that’s where Safeagent has a role to play, particularly where it comes to training, so agents can give that confidence to landlords – and win business.”