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Products & Services
Countrywide surveyors sign Landmark digital deal
Tech is changing the way property professionals across the industry do their job. And that now includes the 430-strong Countrywide surveyors team. Where pencil and paper once sufficed, its staff have now begun completing their valuations equipped with Surface Pro 4 tablet PCs (see right) loaded up with software designed to entirely digitise the property valuation process. Countrywide Surveying Services’ says it wants to “disrupt” the way valuation referrals are handled and its aim is to sign off 99% of properties on the day they are valued. This is because, it says, the system enables its surveyors to capture site notes and use Rightmove’s Surveyor Comparable Tool to call up property details and compare it with similar homes in the area. Landmark deal The system is Landmark Valuation Services’ Q-Mobile product which has just finished being rolled out across Countrywide. And the deal is one of Landmark’s biggest to date, says Mike Holden, its Head of Client Relationships. Countrywide’s valuations business is one of the biggest players in the market and its performance was one of the few high points of the PLC’s otherwise poor annual results published last week. During 2016 it completed 364,957 valuations and surveys, increased its market share and turned…
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New money laundering watchdog launched
The government has announced that a new watchdog is to be launched early next year to oversee the UK’s Anti Money Laundering (AML) regulations, which are due to become law this June. Called the Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS), its job will be to tackle potential weaknesses in the supervision of estate agents that criminals may be exploiting. The new anti money laundering watchdog will be paid for by what the HM Treasury calls ‘supervisors’; the big accountancy, law and other trade and regulatory bodies. It will be based at the HQ of the Financial Conduct Authority in London. AML rules The latest version of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017 is designed to bring the UK in line with international standards and include “robust new standards of supervision”. They introduce new responsibilities for agents covering when and how they must carry out enhanced due diligence on customers, and how they carry out risk assessments to work out if their business is vulnerable to money laundering attempts. The regulation in particular ask agents to look more carefully at transfer of funds, a problem highlighted in January when a criminal gang based in London…
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Badger Holdings invests heavily in digital landlord and tenant online services
The parent company of Townends and Regents Estate Agents, Badger Holdings, has launched an online lettings portal for its landlords, and signed up to Fixflo at the same time, in what is a major digital push for the group. Townends has 21 branches in London and Surrey and Regents has six, also in Surrey. Landlord clients of the two companies will now be able to see more clearly what’s going on with their tenancies, Badger Holdings says, including the ability to examine digital contracts, tenants’ details, online statements, pending work orders and downloadable inventories, EPCs and deposit certificates. Tenants being managed by Townends and Regents branch staff will now be able to flag up repairs and maintenance problems directly through Fixflo’s online reporting system. Badger Holdings believes this has “[been] proven to revolutionise repairs reporting for the residential lettings industry, helping agents provide a more streamlined service,” it says. Caroline Kavanagh, Director of Operations of Badger Holdings, (pictured, above) says “The provision of a comprehensive repairs handling process is essential to every lettings and management service. “Adopting new methods which capitalise on the ways in which people are choosing to manage more and more aspects of their daily life is…
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Propertymark kicks off sporting spend at Sky-broadcast matches
Propertymark, the new property brand formerly known as NFoPP launched in February, is to promote its new identity on perimeter boards at 20 sporting events to be broadcast by Sky Sports this year. It is part of a significant push by the NAEA, ARLA and NAVA to present themselves as consumer – rather than just industry – champions to the public. The new campaign will include three cricket matches, six rugby matches and a single football fixture, Scunthorpe United versus Bradford City on the 24th March. The rest of the events include a Rugby Union Varsity match at Twickenham on December 7th as well as an under-20s England versus Scotland match and the Rugby League Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford on October 7th. Propertymark says the campaign, which will feature its new green logo, is to be seen by an audience of 9.5 million between the ages of 18 and 65 on Sky during the events. “This demonstrates our commitment to support Propertymark to benefit members by reaching a wide and relevant consumer audience via popular televised Sky Sports events,” says Propertymark. Long tradition Propertymark joins a long tradition of estate agents backing sport financially. In recent years…
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Here’s what letting fees ban will really mean for tenants and agents, industry tells DCLG
The likely results of a letting fees ban for tenants and agents have been spelled out by the National Approved Lettings Scheme (NALS) in a briefing document produced by its Fair Fees Forum for the Department of Communities and Local Government. As well as highlighting how poor policing of a letting fees ban would lead to an unfair advantage for those who did not comply with the ban, the Fair Fees Forum says there will be “a number of serious disadvantages for tenants”. These include: Rents will rise as landlords seek to recoup the costs of referencing, deposit administration and inventories. The practice of high ‘month one rents’ in lieu of fees will increase. Block viewings rather than individual accompanied viewings will become the norm. Tenancy negotiations will need to simpler and more streamlined and less tailored. Tenants will have to provide their own references plus a lot of the information currently gathered by letting agents. Less help for tenants when Right to Rent enquiries become complicated or with utility bill and transfer problems. Property standards may fall as landlords do fewer repairs or refurbish properties less often. The Fair Fees Forum also makes the point that banning fees may lead…
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Fenn Wright Acquires Thorntons
Independently owned East Anglian estate agency Fenn Wright has acquired the respected, Sudbury based, Thorntons for an undisclosed fee.
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Features
Investigation: How are the tenancy deposit schemes performing?
Nigel Lewis talks to letting agents about their experience using tenancy deposit schemes and looks at a recently launched alternative.
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RIBA House of the Year: Murphy House
The RIBA House of the Year has been awarded to the best new house designed by the British architect Richard Murphy.
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Property Ombudsman launches new portal for agents to monitor complaints
Salisbury-based The Property Ombudsman (TPO) has promoted its Casework Director Jane Erskine to the role of Deputy Ombudsman and launched a new online portal to enable agents and consumers to review cases as they proceed. Jane’s promotion is part of a reorganisation at TPO that Katrine Sporle, the Property Ombudsman, says are part of efforts to provide a “streamlined service that puts the consumer at the heart of the process”. Durham University education Jane (pictured, left) joined TPO as a case officer in 2007 after a nine-year stint working in private practice specialising in wills, conveyancing and probate, and has risen through the TPO ranks. In 2010 she was promoted to Senior Case Officer at the property dispute resolution organisation before rising to Casework Director two years later. She is a regular fixture on the property speaking circuit including at several regional NAEA conferences and masterclasses. Key to the TPO’s reorganisation is a new online portal that Katrine says will “transform the way the scheme reviews complaints by allowing agents and consumers to review live case updates, with additional functions for agents who will soon be able to renew their membership and update their contact systems at the click of a…
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Minister gives £1.2bn starter homes scheme green light
A scheme outlined a year ago while David Cameron was still in power that enables first time buyers to purchase discounted starter homes has been given the green light by housing minister Gavin Barwell (pictured). He told Sky News yesterday that up to 500 brownfield sites within 30 local authorities will create up to 30,000 new homes during the current parliament, funded via a £1.2 billion Starter Homes Land Fund. The sites will include several town centres and, the government says, will support wider regeneration and growth of local areas. Barwell says construction will “start quickly” and that planning permission for the sites will be streamlined, simplified and therefore much less expensive than for normal developments, enabling the properties to be sold ‘at least’ 20% below market value. The homes will only be available to first time buyers between 23 and 40 years old and the scheme only applies to properties selling for a maximum of £250,000 outside London and £450,000 within the capital. Each of the 30 local authorities (see list below) has been selected because, the government believes, they can implement the new scheme the fastest. Authorities must now identify potential brownfield sites working in partnership with the…
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