RoPA still THREE years away, predicts leading lettings expert

It will take another three years for Lord Best’s RoPA report to be implemented, a leading lettings expert has predicted.

Sally Lawson, former ARLA president and founder of coaching company Agent Rainmaker, says delays in announcing the details of the long-awaiting RoPA framework are likely to continue until at least 2025.

“The government hasn’t prioritised considering RoPA and I don’t foresee that changing any time soon,” she told The Negotiator.

“I speak to dozens of agents on a daily basis and they’re all eager to see the regulations become law, as they recognise the benefits in terms of industry reputation.

“Most of them are already complying with the rules we expect to see announced as part of the changes but having these set down as requirements should help landlords, tenants and the general public see that the majority of agents are reputable and hard working.

“The government may not be prioritising RoPA, but we certainly can and that way, agents can not only illustrate the gold standard of working and help them attract and retain new landlords, it’ll take the pressure off them once we know when the regulations go live.”

Culture

Lawson says agents should look at their recruitment process and ask candidates to fill in a specific application form and then book a ‘culture’ fit online interview.

This filters out those applying anywhere and everywhere and leaves those genuinely interested in working for the agency. This should be followed by a robust onboarding process setting out what training they’re expected to undertake.

This is so they know from the outset that meeting their quota of career professional development days for the year will be considered during pay and performance reviews.

“But all of these changes only have an impact if you also work on creating a fantastic company culture,” adds Sally

“Happy staff means happier customers, but it also means keeping staff for longer – meaning you can train and retain great qualified staff, and compliance with that element of RoPA will be much simpler.”

Watch Sally’s video on RoPA here.