Ground-breaking industry forum meets to discuss CMP

The first meeting of an industry-wide forum has been held into the thorny issue of Client Money Protection schemes – which have come under repeated fire for their apparent smoke and mirrors approach.

The ground-breaking meeting– a first for the industry and convened by SAFEagent – was widely attended by representatives of organisations involved.

They included Capita, which will be launching an insurance-backed tenancy deposit scheme in April, SAFEagent, ARLA, NALS, RICS, NFoPP, insurers and tenancy deposit scheme operators.

They sat around a table to discuss how they might co-operate to improve consumer awareness of CMP, with the issue of also transparency being raised as a priority.
 
There was general agreement on the importance of raising consumer awareness, including explaining how the various schemes work, and encouraging consumers to use lettings and management agents who are covered by CMP.
 
It was agreed that all relevant information to consumers needs to be as available and as transparent as possible so that consumers are aware of what protection currently exists.

It was agreed that it should be considered whether improvements can be made to what is currently available and whether or not the term CMP itself needs to be redefined.
 
To that end, meetings with a number of consumer groups will be set up to take soundings on how landlords and tenants could better understand the importance of using an agent who is part of a CMP scheme.
 
It was also agreed that further consideration should be given to whether it would be possible to share information, and how to work more closely with Trading Standards for the benefit of the consumer.
 
It was agreed to meet again in February.
 
The Forum was attended by:

ARLA          Ian Potter, Managing Director
ARLA          David Oliver
ARLA          Mark Addis, Ink Underwriting Agencies Ltd
ARLA          Alex Skriptchenkov, Ink Underwriting Agencies Ltd
Capita          Gareth Kings
Capita          Andrew Neighbour
DPS             Kevin Firth, Director
DPS              Laurence Dillamore, Insurance Consultant
My Deposits  Eddie Hooker, Chief Executive
My Deposits  Richard Finan – ARC Insurance
NALS             Isobel Thomson, Chief Executive
NALS             Kerry London, Insurance broker – Jane Pugh, Managing Director
NALS –QBE   Simon Deem – CMP Insurer
NLA                Richard Price, Director of Operations
NFOPP/TDS  Simon Carman – Insurance Consultant
RICS               Paul McCormack, Policy Manager, Regulation
RICS              David Pilling, Head of Global Regulation, Policy & Ethics
SAFEagent    Nicholas Cooper (Forum Chair)
SAFEagent    John Midgley
SAFEagent    Hugh Dunsmore-Hardy, Compliance Director Winkworth
TDS               Nick Hankey
UKALA           Caroline Kenny, Executive