lettings fee ban
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Features
Burning topic – Lettings fee ban
With a lettings fee ban on the way, marketing more landlord and tenant insurances could, says Andrea Kirkby, be a hot topic for agents.
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Latest property news
Exclusive: Opposition to fees ban strongest in rural, Conservative constituencies
SIGN THE PETITION AGAINST THE LETTINGS FEE BAN HERE Opposition among agents to the government’s tenant fees ban is strongest in rural, Conservative-voting area of the country, The Negotiator can reveal. Analysis of the 8,500 people who have so far signed an e-petition calling on the government to do a U-turn on the policy and instead bring in a fees cap reveals that the areas with the most signatures are all rural and semi-urban areas with Conservative MPs. The only exceptions to this rule are Coventry, six of London’s inner boroughs including Battersea, Bermondsey, Limehouse, West Ham, Ealing and Finchley, plus, Brighton and Hove, Bournemouth and Bristol West. The areas where most people have signed the petition are in parts of Hampshire, Somerset, Wiltshire, East Sussex, Kent, Essex, East Anglia, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire. Opposition to a ban is weaker in the north although there are hotspots of people signing the petition in North Lincolnshire and Lancashire. Within housing minister Dominic Raab’s constituency of Esher & Walton in Surrey, 17 people have signed the petition, while in Sajid Javid’s constituency of Bromsgrove in the West Midlands, 15 people have. The constituency with the highest number of signatures is in Kettering,…
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Latest property news
Government to introduce regulation of leasehold property management
The government is to introduce measures for the regulation of leasehold property management, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has revealed. His department is now seeking views on whether “a new regulatory model is needed for agents in the leasehold sector” and “what form regulation of letting and managing agents should take to best protect and empower tenants and leaseholders”. The proposals set out by Sajid take a three-pronged approach to regulate the management of leasehold properties. This will include measures to bring in regulation of managing agents, measures to protect consumers from unfair costs and overpriced service charges, and ways to give leaseholder more “say over their agent”. The Communities minister also wants to know if a new independent regulatory body for the property management sector. This is because, the Department of Communities and Local Government says, the sector is only “partly self-regulated” through the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) and ARLA Propertymark through their codes of conduct. Agents who are not members are not therefore covered by these codes and this “can provide a poor deal for consumers”. “This is supposed to be the age of the empowered consumer – yet in property management, we’re still living in the…
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Latest property news
Hackney introduces letting fees ban without waiting for government
The London Borough of Hackney has launched a voluntary letting fees ban ahead of the government’s ban expected next year. The borough has called on all letting agents within its borders to “stop unfair charges for private renters” including processing, amending or renewing a tenancy agreement. The initiative is part of the borough’s Better Renting Campaign to promote a fairer renting for the 32,000 households who rent from private landlords within Hackney. “We have long called on the Government to take action to stop this extortionate financial burden placed on private renters,” says recently-elected Labour councillor Sem Moema (pictured, left), who is also a housing advisor to the borough’s directly-elected mayor. “The new housing minister, Alok Sharma, must resist the strong voice of the letting agent lobby and push through this legislation without delay. “But while it’s vital action, a lettings fee ban tackles the symptoms, not the causes, of the housing crisis. “In the absence of any real change on the ground, we’re taking matters into our own hands and are working directly with local letting agents to create a fairer and more transparent private renting system in Hackney, starting now.” The campaign has the official support of one…
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