Association of Residential Letting Agents
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Latest property news
Tenant fees ban: warning issued about deposits and first month’s rent
Tenant Fees Act prohibits agents waiting until funds have cleared from a tenant's bank account before they issue a contract, as many do at the moment.
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Latest property news
Will it be another female President in 2021 for ARLA?
Ballot closes this morning at 10am to elect the top job at ARLA for 2021 with both a male and female candidate in the two-person run off.
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Latest property news
Tenant fees ban ‘set to change the way rental property ads are written’
Agents will soon have to list which services are being provided as part of the rent when writing rental property ads.
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Latest property news
Four landlords quit market and sold up per branch last month
Latest ARLA figures also reveal that six landlords quit BTL market in London per branch last month, and that available stock is down 4% across England.
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Latest property news
First MP to reply to ARLA’s tenant fees ban letter say industry is “perverse”
The mountain that the industry must climb to defeat the tenant fees ban has been revealed after a Labour MP replied to a letter sent to him by a local letting agent following ARLA’s recent call for action. ARLA last week asked agents to write to their local MPs, and Reading branch manager Khalil Iqbal obliged – only to receive a blunt rebuttal from Matt Rodda, his MP for Reading East and Shadow Minister for Local Transport. From his letter it’s clear that not only does ARLA have to persuade the Conservative government that the bill will damage local rental markets and employment, but also must change Labour thinking too. Khalil, who is a branch manager at Reading agency Adams Estates, received his letter on Saturday from Rodda, who in his reply dodged all the points made by Khalil about the damage the bill may wreak. Perverse Instead the MP says the industry is “perverse” because tenants are charged by agents for a service provided to landlords and that agents fees increased by 60% between 2010 and 2015, he claims. The MP also highlights in the letter how closely Conservative and Labour policy is aligned on housing. For example, Rodda…
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Latest property news
11 months to go! Client Money Protection legislation enters parliament
The government has laid down the new legislation in parliament that will make Client Money Protection mandatory for all agents by April next year.
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Latest property news
Tenant fees ban will cost nearly £10,000 a year per branch, says government
The government's own assessment of the fees ban is likely to cost the industry £340m during the first year, or nearly £10,000 per branch.
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Latest property news
Landlords increasing rents to pay for extra regulatory costs
Read how ARLA says more landlords are increasing their rents to pay for deluge of new legislation being introduced to regulate and tax the sector.
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Latest property news
Letting agents today face new but “pointless” Banning Orders and Rogue Database system
The government’s Banning Orders and Rogue Database system for letting agents has gone live today despite the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) describing the initiative as “disappointing” and “pointless”. From now onwards, landlords or letting agents who are convicted of specific offences can be banned from letting or managing a property for at least 12 months via a Banning Order, and added to the Rogue Database for at least two years. The offences cover the most serious housing and criminal crimes. These include those involving fire and gas safety, Right to Rent, housing benefit fraud, ignoring council improvement notices, collusion in cannabis cultivation or drug dealing, poor HMO management, illegal evictions and violent or sexual offences against tenants. “I am committed to making sure people who are renting are living in safe and good quality properties. That’s why we’re cracking down on the small minority of landlords that are renting out unsafe and substandard accommodation,” says Minister for Housing and Homelessness Heather Wheeler. “Landlords should be in no doubt that they must provide decent homes or face the consequences.” First Tier Tribunal Once convicted, councils can apply to a First Tier Tribunal to have the landlord or agent involved banned…
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Latest property news
Agents have at most 16 months to get ready for letting fees ban, says ARLA
The letting fees ban in England is expected to be introduced in April 2019 at the latest, the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) has confirmed, to give agents time to implement the looming Client Money Protection (CMP) regulations before the ban goes live. “Mandatory CMP needs to come into force before the letting fees ban does to prevent some more unscrupulous agents from propping up their businesses through their client funds when the ban comes into force,” ARLA’s Chief Executive David Cox told The Negotiator. He also revealed that ARLA is to tender to become one of the government’s approved CMP providers when the scheme goes live. Approved provider In its consultation document the government says it would prefer for CMP to be administered by an approved list of providers rather than civil servants running a centrally-run scheme, in the same way the deposits protection and redress schemes work. ARLA’s existing CMP scheme – members must have it in place to join – is the largest in the industry with £1.6 billion of the total £2.7 billion client funds held by the industry covered. “It’s all about creating a level playing field – people assume that the industry is regulated,…
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