A lettings agent is calling on ARLA to rethink its rules on touting, which it amended only last year.
The amendment allows ARLA members to tout for each others’ properties – something that was previously strictly banned.
But John Grimes, managing director of Drummonds, in Berkshire, and a long-standing ARLA member, said the amendment had been presented as a fait accompli, without any discussion or consultation with members.
He said: “The rule change actually seems to encourage touting, while to set member against member certainly doesn’t seem right. There needs to be a debate on it.
“I realise that touting is rife in the sales industry but there, at least, it is a one-off transaction. With lettings, it is different because the agent has an ongoing relationship with tenants and landlords.”
John, who has been in the agency business for over 40 years, says he was appalled by the aggressive tactics of a fellow ARLA member when his own agency put a large detached house in a secluded cul-de-sac up for rent. They did so discreetly, with no To Let board.
The property is owned by landlords who are in the Far East and for whom John's firm has acted for some years. He was aware that the couple had already been victims of an identity fraud whilst living abroad, and was horrified to hear that they had been directly approached by a rival letting agent – part of one of the largest chains in the UK.
John said: “This other agent had even discovered the business email address of the husband, which worried our client greatly. How could anyone have acquired this when all that had been made public was a photograph?
“In the landlord’s mind, the fact that an agent would go to such lengths to discover an email address for someone who had been living on the other side of the world for many years was a very worrying threat to his security.
“Why should I want to be associated with this kind of behaviour?”
John said: “I need to assure my clients that membership of ARLA is a benefit to them and not one that condones underhand behaviour and threatens their privacy.
“It seems that some of the sharp practices prevalent in selling houses are creeping in to lettings. This is very worrying as renting becomes a more common form of housing tenure.
“I believe competition is healthy – I welcome it and enjoy the benefits. In my view, however, a professional association should stand for something that benefits the clients of its members and does not appear to threaten them.”
When ARLA announced the amendment to its rules on touting last year, it said that it had done so in the light of legal concerns about competition issues. It also said that the change followed concerns expressed by some ARLA members.
ARLA said at the time: “The change means that the public can benefit from healthy competition between all lettings agents.”
Comments
No doubt this mini debate has run its course but having started this I wiuld just like to re-iterate my point. As far as touting is concerned I am aware that it will go on in one form or another forever.
My point is that a line needs to be drawn in relation to our clients' privacy.
In the case I outlined the approach backfired on the tout because it worried the client that information he thought confidential could be easily obtained and used in this way. Where will it stop ? Will the tout sell on the information ?
I don't think ARLA's advice to its members has been thought through , it seems like a knee jerk to legislation without proper debate.Where fast advancing technology is becoming more and more relevant it should be taken into account and guidance issued.
Stonehenge: You say 'ARLA has no control over what agents are allowed to do under the Enterprise Act. ARLA is a Trade Association and it cannot overrule statutory legislation - in other words they had no choice but to amend their rules on touting. I'm sure they might agree with the sentiments expressed about touting but they would leave themselves open to a legal challenge.'
Forgive me if I am missing something here, but I cannot find anything in the Enterprise Act or indeed any other legislation whatsoever which says that touting must be allowed.
Please can you point me to the section that specifically demands that touting must be allowed? Or indeed to any part of any law that even refers to the practice of touting?
I suspect that if touting were ever to be referred to in a law, it would be to ban it. But again,where is ARLA in all of this?
The following two comments are completely missing the point: (blaming the messenger!)-
Ian Sanford "I voted against ARLA joining NFoPP as I believed that, eventually, we would all be dragged down to the lowest common denominator. This has now come to pass with the change in the 'touting' rule. The sooner that ARLA parts company with NFoPP the better."
Ray Evan: "Touting is wrong in every respect - end of story!
Once again the NFoPP (which controls NAEA & ARLA?) shows how out of touch it is with the majority of its members.
I believe that, In view of the number of negative posts on this site over the last few months from long standing and supporting members, if the NFoPP does not do some serious rethinking and get its act together the individual membership will shrink to an unsustainable level to represent the industry as a profession."
THE POINT IS:
ARLA has no control over what agents are allowed to do under the Enterprise Act. ARLA is a Trade Association and it cannot overrule statutory legislation - in other words they had no choice but to amend their rules on touting. I'm sure they might agree with the sentiments expressed about touting but they would leave themselves open to a legal challenge.
I find it really depressing that a majority of posters on here favour ARLA being an old boys club instead of an organisation which seeks to raise standards within an industry where people actually COMPETE with each other.
As for comments suggesting that "the public" (whoever they might be) disapprove of touting, I know from experience that some potential clients will reject an approach from someone touting for business considering it unprofessional, whilst others - perhaps frustrated by a lack of initiative shown by their current agent - will be delighted to hear from an agent who has been proactive enough to contact them directly.
In my experience, no one paid any attention to this rule before hand so who cares. Get out there and start touting.
I voted against ARLA joining NFoPP as I believed that, eventually, we would all be dragged down to the lowest common denominator. This has now come to pass with the change in the 'touting' rule. The sooner that ARLA parts company with NFoPP the better.
If competition is not allowed between ARLA members then it could be accused of being an organisation with protective policies to benefit its own members (i.e mutual backscratching). The best members will succeed and the weaker ones will fail as in all market places. The privacy issue is really one of where the agents got the information and that source should be looked at carefully.
The point I am trying to make here is that this kind of touting , the lengths to which the tout went to , are damaging to the credibility of any Professional Association. Why encourage members to steal business from one another ? Makes no sense to me.
Our client was upset and threatened by the tactics adopted by a fellow member of my association , I had to convince him that there was no likelihood of further identity fraud developing from this event and that ARLA was about raising standards not lowering them. We carry a lot of responsibility for confidential data and need to be a trusted organisation not a bunch of opportunists.
Touting is wrong in every respect - end of story!
Once again the NFoPP (which controls NAEA & ARLA?) shows how out of touch it is with the majority of its members.
I believe that, In view of the number of negative posts on this site over the last few months from long standing and supporting members, if the NFoPP does not do some serious rethinking and get its act together the individual membership will shrink to an unsustainable level to represent the industry as a profession.
All of the ARLA agents I know in this part of the world have been touting for years and years. I doubt its been any different anywhere else in the country.
Methinks ARLA have been all too well aware of this and have decided they can't police it anymore. I bet their people used to spend a hugely disproportionate amount of time and money in the futile attempt to do so.
By dropping the rule they're probably saving a bomb and in this age of austerity.........
Just a thought, but has there ever been research into what the public thinks of agency touting, and whether they think it reflects badly or well on the industry? No prizes as to what their answers would be.
I agree with every word! The trouble is that so many of the multi-national estate agencies are having a tough time selling property that they are putting pressure on their letting departments to get the business in any way that they can hence touting from other ARLA members is now actively encouraged. I have been an ARLA member for 19 years but since the ill-conceived merger and the creation of NFOPP the whole meaning and original purpose behind ARLA seems to have been forgotten in the race to extract more and more money from members. I may be naive but I do believe that the original idea of ARLA was the desire to improve the private rental sector by getting rid of cowboy letting agents, providing the best training and supporting Member firms in the pursuit of excellence. What happened to all those good intentions? Where is the public voice of ARLA loudly and regularly educating the general public about the benefits of using ARLA agents? Where was ARLA when the Government casually dropped the requirement for licensing when it could have been the biggest shake-up in the industry and the end of rogue letting agents? I expect they were busy planning how to extract more money out of their members so that they can make their empire even bigger ........! I wonder what will happen if Countrywide carry out their threat to pull out of ARLA? Maybe the worm is about to turn!!
You contradict yourself Rebecca. You seem to think that a free market can co-exist with restrictive practices. In fact they're mutually exclusive.
I've been a letting agent for eight years. I've passed the Technical Award and am now in the process of joining ARLA for the first time specifically because they've dropped the No touting" rule. If they ever reintroduce it I'll resign my membership immediately.
Ironically I do very little touting nowadays - more often I'm on the receiving end of it. However, I win and retain business by meeting my clients needs and expectations - not by trying to stifle the competition via a cosy old boys club.
This is shocker. Does anyone ever remember this being put to ARLA members or discussed anywhere? So how was it decided and who decided it? I also agree with Rebecca - what kind of legal advice would permit touting. Not possible, surely.
Touting is an awful practice. It does no one in the industry any good, sales or lettings. But I agree, particularly bad in lettings. In my view, ARLA should never have allowed its members to tout at all, let alone to actually encourage its members to tout from each other.
Would love to know what the 'legal' arguments were that said there should be free competition between all agents, since there already is a free market with plenty of competition. Could ARLA kindly give chapter and verse as to where they got this dubious sounding legal advice from?
If you can't stand the heat...