Whitegates, part of Legal & General’s Xperience group, has become the latest franchise network to pledge its support for SAFEagent.
Whitegates will be urging all of its business partners within Xperience to also register.
Xperience has over 85 agency branches in the UK, operating under four brands: Ellis and Co, operating in London and the South-East; Parkers, covering the Thames Valley and Gloucestershire; CJ Hole in the South-West; and Whitegates covering the Midlands and the North of England and Wales.
Xperience managing director Michael Stoop said: “SAFEagent helps to protect landlords’ and tenants’ money by allowing them to identify which letting and management agents are covered by client money protection schemes – therefore keeping their business and money safe.
“Displaying the SAFEagent logo is complementary to ARLA membership and reinforces the message we want to get across to the public.”
John Midgley, chair of the SAFE Steering Group, said: “We are delighted that Xperience and initially Whitegates as part of the group has pledged its support for SAFEagent.
“It’s a simple but important message for consumers – if you do not use an agent that is part of a client money protection scheme, your money could be at risk.
“With the addition of Xperience’s national franchise network, awareness of SAFEagent and the importance of choosing a letting agent covered by a Client Money Protection scheme can only continue to increase.”
Almost 2,000 letting agents have now signed up to SAFEagent.
In addition to Government support, key organisations in the industry including Which?, Citizens Advice Bureau, Shelter, Crisis, The Property Ombudsman, Consumer Focus, National Union of Students, OFT, GLA and Trading Standards Institute have all allied themselves to the campaign.
Notably, ARLA has steadfastly refused to back the campaign, leaving it up to its own members.
Key suppliers to the sector are also backing SAFEagent, including HomeLet, CFP WinMan and Imfuna.
www.safeagents.co.uk
%20-%20IMAGE%20Client%20Accounting%20%E2%80%93%20what%20are%20your%20options.jpg)
Comments
@IndustryObserver
If you look at the SAFEagent blog, you will see that SAFEagent are very active!
http://safeagents.co.uk/blog/
They recently celebrated their 1st birthday with an on-line campaign that saw significant participation from the property industry including two of the biggest Landlord sites & databases, Property Tribes and Property 118.
http://propertytribes.com
http://property118.com
Anyone know what SAFE is actually fdoing at the moment and where the public awareness campaign is?
And whether this meeting to create an early warning system post Spencer Knight collapse and headless chickens demonstration amongst those involved?
Anyone know how many individual offices out of the estimated 16,000 UK letting agents (according to TPO) or 13,000 (according to ARLA) are now members?