Association of Independent Inventory Clerks
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Latest property news
Meet the new ‘Mr Inventories’ as AIIC appoints new chair
Daniel Evans says he's perfectly placed to help inventory clerks navigate the 'troubled waters' facing the sector.
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Latest property news
Letting agents using clandestine inventory companies to sidestep fees ban, says trade body
AIIC says tenants are already being offered inventories by 'independent' inventory that in reality are owned by the agent involved.
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Latest property news
Make inventory reports compulsory and regulated, says trade body
...because if fewer landlords and agents use inventories after the fees ban, deposit protection will be rendered pointless, says AICC
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Latest property news
Tenant fees ban will have an unintended consequence, Mr Hammond
Two senior figures within the lettings industry have said that the tenant fees ban announced by Philip Hammond in his Autumn statement is likely to make life more difficult for tenants, not easier. Martin Totty, CEO of HomeLet (pictured, left) and David Cox, MD of ARLA (pictured below), both told The Negotiator that they expect tenants to be asked for – and pay the costs of – providing their own references if a full ban is implemented. Totty, who heads up the UK’s largest referencing agency, says that while there is now uncertainty about what might happen to referencing after agents and landlords are prevented from passing on their cost to tenants, if this does happen renters should not “assume referencing is no longer their liability” if they want to secure a property. “This would be an unfortunate [and] unintended consequence of the announcement contained in the Autumn Statement,” he says. David Cox agrees, saying that if referencing agencies such as HomeLet are forced to find alternative business models, these companies will turn to tenants to pay the cost of checking their financial and rental track records. Cox says that if a full ban is introduced he believes agents will ask tenants for…
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Latest property news
Tenants should attend inventory check-out
All agents will agree that it is good practice to have a detailed and accurate inventory completed at the start of the tenancy, and again when the tenancy ends, but tenants should be encouraged to attend the check-out in order to avoid potential disputes between both sides of the rental transaction, according to the Association of Independent Inventory Clerks (AIIC). Tenancy deposits are often necessary to protect the landlord in the event of non-payment of rent or loss resulting from the tenant not complying with the terms of the tenancy agreement. Combined with a well prepared inventory, the landlord enjoys a much more risk-free tenancy. But end of tenancy disputes can often arise when the tenant disagrees with the recorded state of the rental property at the end of a tenancy in comparison to its condition when they first arrived, and find that they face having money deducted from their deposit as a consequence. The AIIC believes that the number of potential disagreements between landlords and tenants could be significant reduced if more tenants were present at the inventory check-out. The AIIC’s plea comes in response to data released by the Deposit Protection Service in July, which suggested that almost…
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