SAFEagent week is running this week – until May 18. It is the second annual SAFEagent week and comes shortly after the refusal of the Government to accept a House of Lords proposal to regulate letting agents.
Instead, housing minister Mark Prisk stepped in with an eleventh hour amendment of his own, paving the way for all letting agents to have to belong to an authorised redress scheme.
However, the message from SAFEagent is that consumers’ finances are still at risk if the agent does not subscribe to a Client Money Protection scheme.
John Midgley, chair of the SAFEagent steering group, said: “While we applaud the Government’s recent move to tighten the regulation of letting agents, giving tenants and landlords the right to seek redress only goes so far.
“Let’s not forget that the recent changes to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill do not cover Client Money Protection, which means that if an agent were to abscond with a landlord or tenant’s money, they wouldn’t stand much chance of getting it back.
“To this end, the aim of SAFEagent remains true – to raise awareness among consumers of the importance of choosing an agent who is part of a Client Money Protection scheme.
“By working together as an industry we can achieve this, and we urge all letting agents committed to professional standards and consumer protection to sign up to the SAFEagent campaign.”
The national campaign is taking place at local level, encouraging local landlords and tenants to use only agents showing the SAFEagent logo, to demonstrate they are signed up to a Client Money Protection insurance scheme.
More than 2,000 agents are signed up to the SAFEagent campaign which has attracted powerful support, not least from the Government, Shelter, Property Ombudsman and Citizens Advice Bureau. It has, however, failed to get unqualified endorsement from the RICS and ARLA.
The 125 offices of Belvoir Lettings, a founder member of SAFEagent, are among those taking part in this week’s campaign, mustering local press and radio coverage
Dorian Gonsalves, CEO of Belvoir, said: “I am delighted to offer Belvoir’s support to SAFEagent Awareness Week, which seeks to improve landlord and tenant confidence in the private rented sector.
“Landlords and tenants often make decisions that are based purely on cost, but I would urge everyone to make a stand against rogue lettings agents by checking that the agent they use can provide details of the organisation they are regulated by and confirm that they are covered by a CMP scheme.”
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