rogue agents
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Regulation & Law
Rogue letting agencies in court after ‘scamming UK newcomers’
Two Tower Hamlets lettings agencies and their owners have been prosecuted for 15 offences including "bait and switch” adverts.
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Latest property news
MHCLG seeks your views on banning orders and rogue landlords
Government wants to hear from letting agents and tenants about its latest reforms to the private rental market.
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Latest property news
Revealed: how much rogue estate agents are damaging the industry
The extent to which rogue estate agents are damaging the industry’s reputation has been laid bare today by new research. The problems are most acute in the private rental sector,but affect all of it. For example, 41% of tenants who used an ‘approved’ letting agent signed up to a professional body said problems with their property were fixed within a week, but only 25% of those used an ‘unapproved’ agent received the same service. The research, which covers transactions over the past five years and was completed by Propertymark, highlights the most common problems tenants encounter including poor property management, the slow replacement of faulty furnishings and white goods, and a reluctance to return deposits fast enough. Propertymark’s research also highlights a key challenge faced by the industry as a whole. Rogue estate agents Over a third of buyers and sellers, and 42% of renters don’t bother to check if the agent they are using has signed up to the key regulatory bodies or is a member of a professional organisation – leaving the door open for rogue estate agents. This is creating significant problems for the industry’s reputation, the research shows. Over half of all the buyers, vendors and…
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Regulation & Law
Government reveals HMO and ‘rogue agent’ crackdown
Housing minister Alok Sharma is to proceed with plans to significantly widen HMO licensing in the UK, and has also published the range of criminal offences that will soon trigger letting agents and landlords being automatically banned from the sector. The new measures will introduce significant additional responsibilities for landlords, letting agents and property managers, and stiff penalties for those convicted of certain criminal offences. The HMO measures, which apply to England and are to be introduced in April 2018 – assuming parliamentary approval – will see some 160,000 additional properties brought into licensing. The proposals frame these as those housing five or more people from two or more separate ‘family groups’. This significantly widens the range of property types included within HMO regulations, which used to only include properties with three or more storeys. Now, apartments and smaller houses will have to be licensed if they fit the new criteria. Enough is enough and so I’m putting these rogue landlords on notice – shape up or ship out of the rental business.” Alok Sharma, Minister for Housing Also, bedrooms offered by landlords and letting agents within HMOs will soon have to meet a new minimum size standard of 6.52…
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Latest property news
Finally! CIELA to launch in April and tackle rogue agents head on
The Charter for Independent Estate and Letting Agents or CIELA has revealed that it will launch on 2nd April 2018 despite several false starts. Soft launched in March to gauge levels of support among independent agents, it then announced in June that it had too few members to go to a full launch, then revealed that it would kick off a full membership plan in July before announcing in October that it would cancel everything. CIELA now says it believes there is a place for an organisation because, its recent research among the industry and members shows, many agents view rogue operators as the biggest threat to the industry, not online agents, the tenant fees ban or corporates. In a statement released this morning, CIELA says it believes looming government regulation of the industry via organisation such as the NAEA and ARLA will not be effective. Rogue directory Instead, it is to launch a directory of legally-compliant agents that can be searched by anyone and be used by any agent regardless of size to prove their integrity and download a certificate. A system to enable rogue agents to be reported for non-compliance with industry regulations and relevant UK laws will…
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Features
Rogue landlords and agents are not the norm
There are unscrupulous landlords who lock out their tenants and, says Frances Burkinshaw, there are rogue agents too, but they are not the norm!
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Latest property news
Two more councils clamp down on rogue landlords and agents
Two new schemes have been announced by two local councils to clamp down on rogue landlords and agents, joining a further half a dozen or more initiatives launched so far this year. Luton Borough Council and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets have both introduced different schemes with varying levels of enforcement. Luton has begun consultation on a selective landlord licensing scheme, while Tower Hamlets has launched a ‘private renters’ charter’ in addition to its existing licensing scheme. Luton wants to introduce licensing in five key wards of the town’s 19 wards. The scheme would see landlords required to apply for a license to operate each of their properties within these areas. Landlords are to be charged £110 per property, plus £110 per bedroom for a five-year licence. “The aim is to improve the overall quality of private housing provision and ensure that parts of the town that are currently blighted by poor quality accommodation and issues that often go hand in hand, are eradicated and improve the quality of life for all,” council Tom Shaw (pictured, left) told Bedfordshire on Sunday. The council says it want to introduced the scheme to stamp out ‘speculative landlords’ who offer over-crowded and…
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Latest property news
Rogue agent list must be available to all says ARLA as government mulls banning orders
The government’s plans to police letting agents and landlords from the private rental market via banning orders are ‘completely illogical and defeat the purpose of the legislation’, says ARLA Propertymark in its response to the government’s recent consultation. ARLA is concerned that the database of rogue landlords and agents subject to banning orders will only be available to local authorities and the Department for Communities and Local Government. “If there is no public access to the database how will landlords or tenants know if they are using a banned agent and how do agents see if those applying for employment are blacklisted or banned,” it says. ARLA instead wants access to the database granted to industries such as it and the NAEA because “unless we are included we will not know if our members are banned or blacklisted” and be able to take the “appropriate action against any member on the list”. But ARLA is pleased that the government has consulted on which offences by landlords and agents may attract a banning order and agrees with them, although it also says that agents who do not display their letting fees or who fail to sign up to one of the…
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Latest property news
Zac Goldsmith targets ‘rogue agents’
Zac Goldsmith has pledged to tackle the mounting housing crisis in the Capital in order to curb soaring house prices and rental values, as well as clampdown on high letting fees. Figures released by Goldsmith’s opponent, Labour’s Sadiq Khan, show that the average letting fee in the Capital has surged by 48 per cent since the last London Mayoral Election in 2012, reflecting a sharp rise in rents. The Tory mayoral candidate said the problem has been compounded by letting agents asking for a deposit equivalent to six weeks of rent, or at least one month’s rent in advance. While accepting that tenancy deposits are a necessity to protect landlords, the Richmond Park MP questions whether the fees being charged by letting agents are justifiable. “The agency fees are still very high – on average across London I think it’s around £330 and I don’t think people get £330-worth from their agents – it’s almost like a scam,” he said. “There are a lot of new businesses emerging where apps are being developed which I think very soon will effectively render the agents redundant.” London’s PRS has grown significantly over recent years. A decade ago private renting was 17 per…
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