National Approved Letting Scheme
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Latest property news
Goodbye NALS, hello Safeagent! Rental sector scheme changes name
The private rental sector organisation says it wants to be the key agent accreditation scheme for lettings and management agents, now branded 'Safeagent'.
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Latest property news
Letting fees ban will NOT become law until at least Spring 2019
The recently-renamed Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG ) does not expect the letting fees ban to come into force until Spring 2019, it has confirmed. In written evidence made this week to both the Select Committee hearings that scrutinised the draft legislation, and to the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS), MHCLG has revealed that it will be at least 15 months before letting agents and landlords will no longer be able to charge fees to tenants. Introduced by Sajid Javid in November last year, the draft legislation was given a thorough savaging by experts during the hearing on Monday and will now go to a third reading in the House of Commons before moving to the Lords. letting fees ban MPs were told at the hearing by experts from Shelter and the University of York’s Centre for Housing Policy that a letting fees ban could easily lead to higher rents as banned fees were added by landlords to the rent over the length of each tenancy, and also reduce the quality of rented accommodation as landlords tightened their purse strings. “We’re pleased to see more clarity on the timetable for implementation of the ban – it’s much…
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Features
A question of property: Isobel Thomson, NALS
Nigel Lewis talks to the industry’s leading lights about the big issues. This week, it’s the turn of Isobel Thomson, CEO of the National Approval Lettings Scheme (NALS).
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Latest property news
Letting fees display rules enforcement is weak or non-existent, research reveals
The fees display regulations introduced two years ago to force agents to show how much they charge tenants remain largely unenforced, research by the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) has revealed. NALS made Freedom of Information requests to every local authority in England and the results make for grim reading, while also highlighting the huge challenges that cash-strapped councils will face when they begin enforcing the government’s proposed letting fees ban. An astonishing 93% % of all the Local Authorities canvassed have not issued any penalties or final warnings to agents for not displaying their fees since the new regulations were introduced in 2015. And the three local authorities who have issued financial penalties – Warwickshire, Kensington & Chelsea and Redbridge – have only mustered THREE in total. Only one of these has been paid in full. Local Authorities’ ability to issue warning letters is only marginally better. Just three local authorities have issued warning letters in significant numbers – East Sussex, Redbridge and Walsall – and in total only 83 warning letters have been issued across the UK so far. Lack of resources These figures reflect the lack of resources that most local authorities have available to police the regulation of letting agents. The NALS research shows…
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Latest property news
NALS agents to get free legal helpline and services
Agent members of the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) can now use a free legal helpline supplied by London and South of England legal firm Moore Blatch. NALS says the move is designed to help letting agents tackle the 145 Acts of Parliament, health and safety requirements and 100s of regulations that now apply to the private rental sector. Agents can access the legal helpline both on the phone or via email between 10am and 5pm Monday to Friday, and will be offered advice and support by Moore Blatch’s team of specialist landlord and tenant lawyers. As well as the helpline, NALS members will be able to use a full range of standard documents, an online service that automates Section 8 and Section 21 notices covering possession, eviction and debt recovery. There will also be a separate and what NALS describes as a ‘simple’ system that will enable agents to produce legally-enforceable notices, letters and court documents on a solicitor’s headed paper. “There’s no doubt it’s a challenging time for agents, and we want to be able to support our firms in every way possible,” says Isobel Thomson, chief executive of NALS (pictured). “The legal landscape is constantly changing and…
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Latest property news
NALS calls for impartial report into lettings market
National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) CEO ex Isobel Thomson (pictured) has criticised the government’s proposed ban on tenant lettings fees and called for an impartial report by the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) into the lettings market. Her comments follow the CMA’s recent recommendations for the legal services sector, which after a year-long investigation found that lawyers need to be more transparent about pricing and join a redress scheme, legal requirements that agents must already meet. “Despite the findings of the report, which calls for more transparency, the legal industry has been allowed to continue without the same level of government intervention the lettings industry will face with a ban on fees,” she says. “The proposed ban is based on limited research and anecdotal evidence, as well as a lack of understanding of the likely consumer detriment that will be caused by removing payment for the services the agent provides. “We believe more impartial information is crucial in advance of taking such a drastic measure as a ban. “Given the government’s focus on improving the experience for the consumer across a number of sectors, and the importance of the private rented sector, NALS believe the CMA is best placed to…
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Latest property news
NALS reframes Fair Fees Forum after ban bombshell
This afternoon the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) announced how its recently-launched Fair Fees Forum will adapt to the ‘surprise’ announcement of a total ban on tenants fees by Philip Hammond last week. The Fair Fees Forum had only just began its work a week before Hammond’s announcement and had set up a working group due to meet the day after the Autumn Statement. But the news that the government intends to go for an outright ban changed everything. NALS revealed that the Fair Fees Forum working group will instead ‘inform the scope of the Government’s consultation prior to a ban’. The forum’s meeting on Friday was attended by officials from the Department of Communities and Local Government who ‘welcomed’ its work so NALS hopes this will give the forum’s advice greater weight at ministerial level. While the working group agreed unanimously to help frame the consultation around the fees ban, some members reserved the right to propose an alternative. But NALS says its key objectives will be to define what ‘fee’ and ‘charges’ are, review how the ban has performed in Scotland, and explore what the implications of the ban in England will be, and how it will be…
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Latest property news
NALS Fair Fees Forum meets to head off a ban
The Fair Fees Forum set up last month by the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) met yesterday for the first time to consider the contentious issue of excessive fees charged to tenants by agents. Many in the industry are hoping the consensus it will built can head off an outright ban on tenant fees by replacing it with a fees cap. It was quite a meeting of minds. Every interest group was invited including those from the lettings industry, two of the redress schemes and the Department for Communities and Local Government. Representatives from trading standards and tenant groups such as Crisis and Shelter were also at the ‘first of its kind’ gathering, which NALS hopes will lead to consensus among the different groups on a ‘fair fees charter’. Agents represented at the meeting included Belvoir, Chestertons, Foxtons, Hunters, Leaders, Northwood, Portico, Savills, Spicerhaart and Winkworth, all of whom made up an ‘agent group’ at the day’s proceedings. The Residential Landlords Association also had representatives at the meeting. The agent group agreed unanimously on the need for ‘fair, justifiable and transparent fees’ and that excessive fees should be curbed. But they also made it clear that agents should be able to…
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Latest property news
Root out rogue letting agents
NALS launches a toolkit to raise standards in the Private Rented Sector.
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