Welcome to the profile page of user "Oaktree"
Last login: 2012-12-18 15:59:34
Last login: 2012-12-18 15:59:34
Oaktree
| Company: | Oakhill |
| Website: | www.oakhill.co.uk |
| Are you an agent? | yes |
| Do I do lettings? | yes |
| Do I do sales? | no |
| Do I do overseas sales or lettings? | Neither |
| Job title: | Manager |
| Supplier: | no |
| Supplier Name: | |
| What do I do? |
Posted Date: Thursday 15th December 2011
Rent control is a non starter, who in their right mind would want to see a resurrection of something like Rent Act tenancies which is what Ken is really proposing. Thats the reason why there was such a shortage in the late 80's, private landlords got out of it because it was so onerous. Boris is sort of on the right track; but as Alan Ward says, don't waste money reinventing the wheel, just repair the ones we have. A national education program is a great idea.
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Rent control is a non starter, who in their right mind would want to see a resurrection of something like Rent Act tenancies which is what Ken is really proposing. Thats the reason why there was such a shortage in the late 80's, private landlords got out of it because it was so onerous. Boris is sort of on the right track; but as Alan Ward says, don't waste money reinventing the wheel, just repair the ones we have. A national education program is a great idea.
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Posted Date: Thursday 15th December 2011
I dream of a day when a Government would implement that sort of education, but I suspect we'd all be accused of 'tenantism' if we even suggested it.
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I dream of a day when a Government would implement that sort of education, but I suspect we'd all be accused of 'tenantism' if we even suggested it.
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Posted Date: Thursday 12th January 2012
This highlights the issues with review sites - you have to take the bad with the good. Unfortunatey, human nature being what it is, tenants will usually post negative comments even if unsubstantiated. On the whole I think they are a good idea but they ought to allow agents to at least defend themselves i.e. each party gets one post to put their side across to avoid lengthy disputes. We're not on this site fortunately but we are on another where an aggrieved tenant complained that 'we' had taken his whole deposit because of a few marks on the carpets. No mention the carpet being 6 months old or that the 'few marks' were caused by him letting off fireworks in the property!! Multiple burns to the carpet and skirting boards. Do any of us lose money due to sites like this? I expect so but its impossible to quatify so we just have to take it on the chin as one of the disadvantages of running a business.
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This highlights the issues with review sites - you have to take the bad with the good. Unfortunatey, human nature being what it is, tenants will usually post negative comments even if unsubstantiated. On the whole I think they are a good idea but they ought to allow agents to at least defend themselves i.e. each party gets one post to put their side across to avoid lengthy disputes. We're not on this site fortunately but we are on another where an aggrieved tenant complained that 'we' had taken his whole deposit because of a few marks on the carpets. No mention the carpet being 6 months old or that the 'few marks' were caused by him letting off fireworks in the property!! Multiple burns to the carpet and skirting boards. Do any of us lose money due to sites like this? I expect so but its impossible to quatify so we just have to take it on the chin as one of the disadvantages of running a business.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 24th January 2012
A step in the right direction perhaps? but I'd like to see the course content to see exactly what it says about tenants obligations to their landlord.
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A step in the right direction perhaps? but I'd like to see the course content to see exactly what it says about tenants obligations to their landlord.
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Posted Date: Monday 23rd January 2012
Clarity in agents charges would be a step in the right direction but its meaningless without some sort of measures in place to deal with agents who ignore it and probably unworkable in the current market. Different agents call the same basic charge by different names; whose to work out what each agent means? who is to check it? Agent shsould be free to charge whatever they like within the law; if they can justify it and landlords or tenants are happy with the service they get in return then there isn't a problem. We all get landlords on the phone whose only interest is in finding the cheapest agent; the cheaper agents would fight to have the lowest apr for fear of losing business; and in doing so will probably kill them off anyway - which equals more bad press for the industry and more calls to lower prices. We need to clear out the rogue agents first; while they are allowed to operate the industry will never get the respect it deserves. Enforced regulation is the only way to do that and someone with the teeth to enforce it like RICS or TSO. Once they are gone we could work towards a common way of advertising our charges to make it easier for landlords to see, and make, an informed decision if cost is their only factor. Regulated agents could then be subjected to a benchmarking system that rates their level of service. Cost is a factor because as sure as eggs are eggs, this would need to be self financed.
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Clarity in agents charges would be a step in the right direction but its meaningless without some sort of measures in place to deal with agents who ignore it and probably unworkable in the current market. Different agents call the same basic charge by different names; whose to work out what each agent means? who is to check it? Agent shsould be free to charge whatever they like within the law; if they can justify it and landlords or tenants are happy with the service they get in return then there isn't a problem. We all get landlords on the phone whose only interest is in finding the cheapest agent; the cheaper agents would fight to have the lowest apr for fear of losing business; and in doing so will probably kill them off anyway - which equals more bad press for the industry and more calls to lower prices. We need to clear out the rogue agents first; while they are allowed to operate the industry will never get the respect it deserves. Enforced regulation is the only way to do that and someone with the teeth to enforce it like RICS or TSO. Once they are gone we could work towards a common way of advertising our charges to make it easier for landlords to see, and make, an informed decision if cost is their only factor. Regulated agents could then be subjected to a benchmarking system that rates their level of service. Cost is a factor because as sure as eggs are eggs, this would need to be self financed.
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Posted Date: Thursday 26th January 2012
@dave And what do you base that assumption on? why would landlords be snapping up 'liquidated' Buy to Let properties if the btl market is going into decline? where will all the renters go? have they suddenly all discovered large cash deposits to go and buy a property of their own? if you think the banks are going to have a sudden and unprecedented change of heart about lending money again to first time buyers, without a sizeable deposit, I think you'll be disappointed. We have more tenants than properties at the moment; we have investor landlords who haven't bought for years suddenly calling again and looking for bargains to buy, I wouldn't be betting on the collapse of the rental market any time soon.
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@dave And what do you base that assumption on? why would landlords be snapping up 'liquidated' Buy to Let properties if the btl market is going into decline? where will all the renters go? have they suddenly all discovered large cash deposits to go and buy a property of their own? if you think the banks are going to have a sudden and unprecedented change of heart about lending money again to first time buyers, without a sizeable deposit, I think you'll be disappointed. We have more tenants than properties at the moment; we have investor landlords who haven't bought for years suddenly calling again and looking for bargains to buy, I wouldn't be betting on the collapse of the rental market any time soon.
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Posted Date: Thursday 26th January 2012
It is news, in the contect that its advising people on whats going on in the industry, but the headline is probably misleading. It may well have peaked for now - and it might go down again - but like the rest of the property industry it cycles constantly and no doubt there will be another 'peak' in the future.
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It is news, in the contect that its advising people on whats going on in the industry, but the headline is probably misleading. It may well have peaked for now - and it might go down again - but like the rest of the property industry it cycles constantly and no doubt there will be another 'peak' in the future.
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Posted Date: Friday 27th January 2012
@ dave 'When property has fallen by 30-50% ' Thank God for that, I thought you meant it was imminent. So we have a bit of time yet to make some money out of the rental market before it all comes tumbling down and the banks decide to start lending 90-100% on falling property prices. "private rentals(according to my kids) is insecure and one sided and basically horrible.fees for just about everything" Whereas banks and mortgage lenders are much more likely to be fair minded and share the wealth aren't they. My recent remortgage cost me nearly a grand in fees. Private rental isn't supposed to be social housing nor is it supposed to solve peoples long term accommodation needs; tell the kids to go to the council or a HA if they want secure. Or if they wait a few days perhaps the market will collapse and they can get a deal.
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@ dave 'When property has fallen by 30-50% ' Thank God for that, I thought you meant it was imminent. So we have a bit of time yet to make some money out of the rental market before it all comes tumbling down and the banks decide to start lending 90-100% on falling property prices. "private rentals(according to my kids) is insecure and one sided and basically horrible.fees for just about everything" Whereas banks and mortgage lenders are much more likely to be fair minded and share the wealth aren't they. My recent remortgage cost me nearly a grand in fees. Private rental isn't supposed to be social housing nor is it supposed to solve peoples long term accommodation needs; tell the kids to go to the council or a HA if they want secure. Or if they wait a few days perhaps the market will collapse and they can get a deal.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 31st January 2012
Not for us. We like to meet our tenants first and I can't think any of our client landlords would thank us for accepting a tenant purely on the amount of rent they are prepared to anonymously bid for and pay £200 for the privilege into the bargain. The tenant has to wait until the end of the bidding period to find out if they are succesful; if not they have to start all over again on another property. I think this will drive rents up on the properties advertised; thats what an auction is all about, achieving the highest amount possible. I just don't see it being the way forward.
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Not for us. We like to meet our tenants first and I can't think any of our client landlords would thank us for accepting a tenant purely on the amount of rent they are prepared to anonymously bid for and pay £200 for the privilege into the bargain. The tenant has to wait until the end of the bidding period to find out if they are succesful; if not they have to start all over again on another property. I think this will drive rents up on the properties advertised; thats what an auction is all about, achieving the highest amount possible. I just don't see it being the way forward.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 31st January 2012
@Rayhan Most of us here are thick skinned enough not to get offended by childish insults like being labelled 'illiterate dinosaurs' but I am interested to hear why you think traditional landlords are suddenly going to split from their chosen agents and use this sort of 'hit or miss' service to find a tenant when they still have the management side to consider? In my 20+ years experience of this industry I have found that the majority of landlords use agents because they don't want to let, or manage, the property themselves. They want a one stop shop where they can leave their rental unit to be let, managed and the rent collected by one person/company. Most won't or don't have the time to start using different companies for different aspects of the same job. Just having the belief in this concept isn't enough to make it work - if it really is what landlords want then they will be inundated with hundreds of new properties within days, so lets see if the proof is in the pudding. As for the internet making everything transparent..are we talking about the same internet? Is the agent or landlord able to see exactly who is bidding and how much? are the tenants references made available to the landlord or agent during the bidding process? who carries out the referencing for PropertyBid? how do they know that the references taken out are going to be suitable for the landlord or agent? This is how it happens in the 'traditional, manual, expensive, disjointed and value-less' way we do things at present This concept is no more likely to be adopted by landlords than the Rent Collection 'system' that went round a few months back.
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@Rayhan Most of us here are thick skinned enough not to get offended by childish insults like being labelled 'illiterate dinosaurs' but I am interested to hear why you think traditional landlords are suddenly going to split from their chosen agents and use this sort of 'hit or miss' service to find a tenant when they still have the management side to consider? In my 20+ years experience of this industry I have found that the majority of landlords use agents because they don't want to let, or manage, the property themselves. They want a one stop shop where they can leave their rental unit to be let, managed and the rent collected by one person/company. Most won't or don't have the time to start using different companies for different aspects of the same job. Just having the belief in this concept isn't enough to make it work - if it really is what landlords want then they will be inundated with hundreds of new properties within days, so lets see if the proof is in the pudding. As for the internet making everything transparent..are we talking about the same internet? Is the agent or landlord able to see exactly who is bidding and how much? are the tenants references made available to the landlord or agent during the bidding process? who carries out the referencing for PropertyBid? how do they know that the references taken out are going to be suitable for the landlord or agent? This is how it happens in the 'traditional, manual, expensive, disjointed and value-less' way we do things at present This concept is no more likely to be adopted by landlords than the Rent Collection 'system' that went round a few months back.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 1st February 2012
@Rayhan First, I don't think the referencing issue was clearly addressed in the website, it was only very briefly mentioned. To attract landlords it need to be a lot more specific; referencing of tenants is critical to getting the right person, or more importantly avoiding the wrong person, so to ignore that or to brush over it won't instill confidence in the system. I don't know where your experience of agents has come from but I suspect you have been dealing with the wrong ones. Most agents I know use the internet and computers almost religously, very few processes are done manually. Costs differ as they do in most industries, just look at the supermarkets, the defining factor is the service that is delivered. Poor agents come and go, the good ones are usually still there 20 years later, so the market has a way of weeding them out. Agents can only advertise those properties that they are instructed on; there are stiff penalties for agents who ignore that. A landlord would have to instruct all agents for everyone to be able to advertise in a central market. This would inevitably lead to dutch autions between tenants, rental prices going up and some agents slashing their prices to get the business. Rents would rise out of reach of most tenants, the cheap agents would crash losing everyones money and only the better agents would survive - and they would promptly be blamed for the whole fiasco in the first place. I hear what you're saying but this sort of system just won't work; there would have to be fundamental changes in the way that every side of the market thinks; landlords, tenants and agents and there would never be enough of one mind set to sway the rest. Its not greedy landlords or throw back agents or even tenants, god bless them, but human nature that will not allow it to work. This isn't a new concept at all, I'm not the only agent who has been in the business for years who looks for new ways of winning,promoting and distributing my services. Most of these 'unique' ideas have been tried at one time or another by other people and shelved for the reasons already given. I'm all for trying something new but it has to be working to convince me, and anything that relies on all landlords having the same mind set about rentals is doomed to failure imo. Landlords can always go let only if they want to save some money; there are agents around here who will find them a tenant for £100-200 but very few ever do. Out of the 500+ properties that we manage only 12 are let only. I've used CFP software since it was a DOS based system, their latest version is a SQL based system - if you can run that under win3.1 I'll eat my hat :-)
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@Rayhan First, I don't think the referencing issue was clearly addressed in the website, it was only very briefly mentioned. To attract landlords it need to be a lot more specific; referencing of tenants is critical to getting the right person, or more importantly avoiding the wrong person, so to ignore that or to brush over it won't instill confidence in the system. I don't know where your experience of agents has come from but I suspect you have been dealing with the wrong ones. Most agents I know use the internet and computers almost religously, very few processes are done manually. Costs differ as they do in most industries, just look at the supermarkets, the defining factor is the service that is delivered. Poor agents come and go, the good ones are usually still there 20 years later, so the market has a way of weeding them out. Agents can only advertise those properties that they are instructed on; there are stiff penalties for agents who ignore that. A landlord would have to instruct all agents for everyone to be able to advertise in a central market. This would inevitably lead to dutch autions between tenants, rental prices going up and some agents slashing their prices to get the business. Rents would rise out of reach of most tenants, the cheap agents would crash losing everyones money and only the better agents would survive - and they would promptly be blamed for the whole fiasco in the first place. I hear what you're saying but this sort of system just won't work; there would have to be fundamental changes in the way that every side of the market thinks; landlords, tenants and agents and there would never be enough of one mind set to sway the rest. Its not greedy landlords or throw back agents or even tenants, god bless them, but human nature that will not allow it to work. This isn't a new concept at all, I'm not the only agent who has been in the business for years who looks for new ways of winning,promoting and distributing my services. Most of these 'unique' ideas have been tried at one time or another by other people and shelved for the reasons already given. I'm all for trying something new but it has to be working to convince me, and anything that relies on all landlords having the same mind set about rentals is doomed to failure imo. Landlords can always go let only if they want to save some money; there are agents around here who will find them a tenant for £100-200 but very few ever do. Out of the 500+ properties that we manage only 12 are let only. I've used CFP software since it was a DOS based system, their latest version is a SQL based system - if you can run that under win3.1 I'll eat my hat :-)
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Posted Date: Thursday 2nd February 2012
Shock. Horror. A politician that doesn't know his bottom from his elbow, who'd have thought? Actually I don't think its his fault; he should be reaming out his advisors this mornng, its their job to make sure he does know about such things.
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Shock. Horror. A politician that doesn't know his bottom from his elbow, who'd have thought? Actually I don't think its his fault; he should be reaming out his advisors this mornng, its their job to make sure he does know about such things.
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Posted Date: Thursday 2nd February 2012
It will be interesting to see how this works out
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It will be interesting to see how this works out
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Posted Date: Tuesday 7th February 2012
But will greedy landlords listen? probably not. Lucy Morton is absolutely right, the hotels will make the money here by offering deals on longer term stays. Even after 20+ years in the industry, the sheer short sightedness of some landlords still amazes me.
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But will greedy landlords listen? probably not. Lucy Morton is absolutely right, the hotels will make the money here by offering deals on longer term stays. Even after 20+ years in the industry, the sheer short sightedness of some landlords still amazes me.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 7th February 2012
They weren't very succesful in Milton Keynes, they just closed their office here and made their staff redundant!
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They weren't very succesful in Milton Keynes, they just closed their office here and made their staff redundant!
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Posted Date: Wednesday 8th February 2012
I'd bet that the media will be the first people to be pulling a set of their accounts at the end of the year to see exactly how much taxpayers money went into it - they better have their sums right or they will be in the spotlight, lol
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I'd bet that the media will be the first people to be pulling a set of their accounts at the end of the year to see exactly how much taxpayers money went into it - they better have their sums right or they will be in the spotlight, lol
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Posted Date: Wednesday 8th February 2012
keep banging your drum dave, one day you might convince the rest of the country :-b
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keep banging your drum dave, one day you might convince the rest of the country :-b
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Posted Date: Thursday 9th February 2012
I think one organisation would be a good idea IF there was any sort of guarantee that the service would be good across the board. As an agent I've used all three schemes; all have advantages and disadvantages, so trying to get the best of all three while losing the rubbish element would be a huge ask for any organisation big enough to pull it off simply because the bigger a company gets the looser their grip on administration becomes IMHO. Look at BT for a prime example; great products in the main but ruined by atrocious, almost non existent customer service. If we only had one organisation, where would we go when they got it wrong? Its bad enough having to choose between just two of them (I wouldn't touch My Deposits again with a bargepole) The sad fact is we do need legislation; those of us who regulate ourselves aren't able to make up for the actions of those that won't, but I agree entirely with you that its the ill thought out legislation that hurts us the most. Its just not big enough on the governments radar to make it worthwhile.
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I think one organisation would be a good idea IF there was any sort of guarantee that the service would be good across the board. As an agent I've used all three schemes; all have advantages and disadvantages, so trying to get the best of all three while losing the rubbish element would be a huge ask for any organisation big enough to pull it off simply because the bigger a company gets the looser their grip on administration becomes IMHO. Look at BT for a prime example; great products in the main but ruined by atrocious, almost non existent customer service. If we only had one organisation, where would we go when they got it wrong? Its bad enough having to choose between just two of them (I wouldn't touch My Deposits again with a bargepole) The sad fact is we do need legislation; those of us who regulate ourselves aren't able to make up for the actions of those that won't, but I agree entirely with you that its the ill thought out legislation that hurts us the most. Its just not big enough on the governments radar to make it worthwhile.
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Posted Date: Thursday 9th February 2012
@ crafty You may want to do your homework before hitting the keyboard ;-) Rules regarding Greater London are slightly different to other parts of the country. S.25 of the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973 provides (as amended by s.4 of the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1983):- “(1) For the purposes of s.22(1) of the Act of 1971, the use as temporary sleeping accommodation of any residential premises in Greater London involves a material change of use of the premises and of each part thereof which is so used. (2) In this section - (a) “use as temporary sleeping accommodation” means use as sleeping accommodation which is occupied by the same person for less than 90 consecutive nights and which is provided (with or without other services) for a consideration arising either - (i) by way of trade for money or money’s worth; or (ii) by reason of the employment of the occupant, whether or not the relationship of landlord and tenant is thereby created; (b) “residential premises” means a building, or any part of a building, which was previously used, or was designed or constructed for use, as one or more permanent residences “. By virtue of the Interpretation Act 1978, the reference to s.22(1) of the 1971 Act now relates to s.55(1) of the 1990 Act. Several boroughs in London have already prewarned people about short lettings during the Olympics, including Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Islington, Westminster, Camden and Chelsea. Failure to comply could result in an enforcem,ent notice and upto a £20k fine. precedence is here http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/1999/5.html
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@ crafty You may want to do your homework before hitting the keyboard ;-) Rules regarding Greater London are slightly different to other parts of the country. S.25 of the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973 provides (as amended by s.4 of the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1983):- “(1) For the purposes of s.22(1) of the Act of 1971, the use as temporary sleeping accommodation of any residential premises in Greater London involves a material change of use of the premises and of each part thereof which is so used. (2) In this section - (a) “use as temporary sleeping accommodation” means use as sleeping accommodation which is occupied by the same person for less than 90 consecutive nights and which is provided (with or without other services) for a consideration arising either - (i) by way of trade for money or money’s worth; or (ii) by reason of the employment of the occupant, whether or not the relationship of landlord and tenant is thereby created; (b) “residential premises” means a building, or any part of a building, which was previously used, or was designed or constructed for use, as one or more permanent residences “. By virtue of the Interpretation Act 1978, the reference to s.22(1) of the 1971 Act now relates to s.55(1) of the 1990 Act. Several boroughs in London have already prewarned people about short lettings during the Olympics, including Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Islington, Westminster, Camden and Chelsea. Failure to comply could result in an enforcem,ent notice and upto a £20k fine. precedence is here http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/1999/5.html
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Posted Date: Monday 13th February 2012
@ fahad Are Northwood the new publicist for the TDS then?
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@ fahad Are Northwood the new publicist for the TDS then?
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Posted Date: Tuesday 14th February 2012
We have an agent in Milton Keynes who has recently stopped trading after doing the same sort of thing but involving much higher figures. Hopefully he will get some of the same handed out to him.
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We have an agent in Milton Keynes who has recently stopped trading after doing the same sort of thing but involving much higher figures. Hopefully he will get some of the same handed out to him.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 14th February 2012
Sounds like a lot until you boil it down to an average of 76 registrations per month, we did more than that in our one and only office, and we're not . If they would only release the number of registrations that they actually converted, now that would make good news. It might even explain why they've been closing offices and making staff redundant.
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Sounds like a lot until you boil it down to an average of 76 registrations per month, we did more than that in our one and only office, and we're not . If they would only release the number of registrations that they actually converted, now that would make good news. It might even explain why they've been closing offices and making staff redundant.
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Posted Date: Friday 17th February 2012
I think there is some truth in what Robert says, in so much that it is easy to make an error and credit the wrong account. If one was to keep making that error and made no effort to check then is is feasible to lose quite a lot of money. I've seen it happen in agencies I've worked for, the skill is in spotting it and putting it right. But that isn't the case here at all, the money would have been found by now if it had been paid to other people in 'error'. The fact that it hasn't is probably due to it not being an error at all but an attempt to defraud people out of their money, which is why it ended in a criminal prosecution.
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I think there is some truth in what Robert says, in so much that it is easy to make an error and credit the wrong account. If one was to keep making that error and made no effort to check then is is feasible to lose quite a lot of money. I've seen it happen in agencies I've worked for, the skill is in spotting it and putting it right. But that isn't the case here at all, the money would have been found by now if it had been paid to other people in 'error'. The fact that it hasn't is probably due to it not being an error at all but an attempt to defraud people out of their money, which is why it ended in a criminal prosecution.
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Posted Date: Friday 17th February 2012
@group 4 & ajay jagota wow, I can believe this sort of information is open to public view!! Is this a sample or live? The Data Protection office will have a field day with you if this is actual tenants and landlords!! https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:pW_1-9Bufu8J:https://www.kislettings.co.uk/dashboard-statements-pdf-download/file/cs9308-1306170281+kisgroup+org&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESizH39n-A2iityedqPCBCXO1PWFkr2gBwCEib1MrFvJElj3Oc1fWWLh7dVnyyEnhQSobJTakJ3XOtngOpLFHHQH82FbMq2epUL2Y-9w5LTaqiVc616TKc_BEKeO5H9qULz8p6WW&sig=AHIEtbTtD6nRPy85oJ3rrZ_qqYxKvz21Yg
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@group 4 & ajay jagota wow, I can believe this sort of information is open to public view!! Is this a sample or live? The Data Protection office will have a field day with you if this is actual tenants and landlords!! https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:pW_1-9Bufu8J:https://www.kislettings.co.uk/dashboard-statements-pdf-download/file/cs9308-1306170281+kisgroup+org&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESizH39n-A2iityedqPCBCXO1PWFkr2gBwCEib1MrFvJElj3Oc1fWWLh7dVnyyEnhQSobJTakJ3XOtngOpLFHHQH82FbMq2epUL2Y-9w5LTaqiVc616TKc_BEKeO5H9qULz8p6WW&sig=AHIEtbTtD6nRPy85oJ3rrZ_qqYxKvz21Yg
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Posted Date: Tuesday 21st February 2012
This is old news; Homelet downgraded all their Appointed Representatives to Introducer Only agreements weeks ago after the FSA started throwing their weight about over this issue. The FSA are scared of getting caught with their trousers around their ankles like they did with the banks so they are making it nigh on impossible for people like Homelet to have Appointed Representatives anymore; we've all been downgraded to Introducer Only. There is little consideration for the landlords or tenants in all this, by Homelet and certainly not by the FSA.
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This is old news; Homelet downgraded all their Appointed Representatives to Introducer Only agreements weeks ago after the FSA started throwing their weight about over this issue. The FSA are scared of getting caught with their trousers around their ankles like they did with the banks so they are making it nigh on impossible for people like Homelet to have Appointed Representatives anymore; we've all been downgraded to Introducer Only. There is little consideration for the landlords or tenants in all this, by Homelet and certainly not by the FSA.
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Posted Date: Thursday 23rd February 2012
@ Matt We were given the option of gaining approval directly with the FSA and remaining AR, but the level of insurance business we take doesn't make all of the hoop jumping worthwhile. There wasn't any other option available as fas as I was aware unless you know different?
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@ Matt We were given the option of gaining approval directly with the FSA and remaining AR, but the level of insurance business we take doesn't make all of the hoop jumping worthwhile. There wasn't any other option available as fas as I was aware unless you know different?
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Posted Date: Tuesday 28th February 2012
ARLA do seem to have the blinkers on for this one, and in a way I can see their point as they want to maximise their income, but they also need to understand that if they want to increase their 'visibility' they need more members. In effect they are penalising ARLA member firms who want to bring their staff training up a level. I'd even suggest a three tier system; one for existing members, non members who are employed by ARLA member firms and then unaffiliated non members but I suspect they would just add a few pounds to the non member rate rather than reduce cost to member firms. In my expereience very few people outside of the industry know who or what ARLA are; the general public perception of them is almost non existent when compared to similar bodies like RICS or even the Ombudsman Scheme.
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ARLA do seem to have the blinkers on for this one, and in a way I can see their point as they want to maximise their income, but they also need to understand that if they want to increase their 'visibility' they need more members. In effect they are penalising ARLA member firms who want to bring their staff training up a level. I'd even suggest a three tier system; one for existing members, non members who are employed by ARLA member firms and then unaffiliated non members but I suspect they would just add a few pounds to the non member rate rather than reduce cost to member firms. In my expereience very few people outside of the industry know who or what ARLA are; the general public perception of them is almost non existent when compared to similar bodies like RICS or even the Ombudsman Scheme.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 28th February 2012
@ Bamber "Your starter for 10 Who is "The appropriate national authority"?" That would be the Department for Communities and Local Government
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@ Bamber "Your starter for 10 Who is "The appropriate national authority"?" That would be the Department for Communities and Local Government
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Posted Date: Tuesday 28th February 2012
I'm sceptical about the use of S212-215 to declare that RENT paid in advance of the tenancy starting should be treated as a deposit. I don't think that was what was intended at all and I see nothing in there to define rent paid in advance as a tenancy deposit. The law already allows for rent to be returned in the event a tenancy agreement is frustrated by the landlord before the start date so what is to be gained? The deposit is defined as money held for: (a) the performance of any obligations of the tenant, or (b) the discharge of any liability of his, - rent doesn't fit this box at all imo. If this was correct, where would one draw the line? six months in advance, a week in advance? What if the tenant decides not to agree to the 'deposit' being unprotected at the start of the tenancy? tenancy agreements would need to change to reflect that deposits COULD be used as rent which would make a mockery of legislation that is already shakey at best. Discuss
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I'm sceptical about the use of S212-215 to declare that RENT paid in advance of the tenancy starting should be treated as a deposit. I don't think that was what was intended at all and I see nothing in there to define rent paid in advance as a tenancy deposit. The law already allows for rent to be returned in the event a tenancy agreement is frustrated by the landlord before the start date so what is to be gained? The deposit is defined as money held for: (a) the performance of any obligations of the tenant, or (b) the discharge of any liability of his, - rent doesn't fit this box at all imo. If this was correct, where would one draw the line? six months in advance, a week in advance? What if the tenant decides not to agree to the 'deposit' being unprotected at the start of the tenancy? tenancy agreements would need to change to reflect that deposits COULD be used as rent which would make a mockery of legislation that is already shakey at best. Discuss
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Posted Date: Tuesday 28th February 2012
Before I get slaughtered, I should add that I think the whole practise of taking money so far in advance for student lets needs looking at, I just disagree that rent taken in advance is the same as a deposit taken in advance.
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Before I get slaughtered, I should add that I think the whole practise of taking money so far in advance for student lets needs looking at, I just disagree that rent taken in advance is the same as a deposit taken in advance.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 29th February 2012
Robert May wrote "With regards to advance rent I took this up directly with DCLG in January 2011 who confirmed that rent taken in advance is a Deposit, it took over a week for them to confirm to me that any sum that could or should be returned to a tenant is a deposit" That is tantamount to them saying the legislation is hopelessly wrong and flies in the face of what the legislation actually says. No reasonable person would interpret S212 (8) as including rent as it would frustrate the other areas of the legislation; the deposit either needs to be protected at the start of the tenancy or it doesn't, they cannot have it both ways. To take the rent out of the deposit would mean unprotecting it and then reprotecting it. And as I said before, what happens when the students decide not to allow the deposit to be unprotected?? If any tenant started action against me for not protecting their rent as a deposit I'd take my chances with a judge; at the end of the day it is the judiciary who interpret the law not government departments. It doesn't suprise me that DCLG are confused about this. It was poorly written legilsation from the start. Robert May wrote "The issue is that some agents are taking Advanced rents in lieu of a deposit in order to circumvent legislation" This is a different issue; if thats the case it wasn't rent at all but a deposit and should be treated as such. I certainly wouldn't be looking to NFoPP, NALS or Sage agent for guidance at the moment; its DCLG who need to sort this out as it doesn't just impact student lets but ALL lets where rent might be collected in advance of the start date.
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Robert May wrote "With regards to advance rent I took this up directly with DCLG in January 2011 who confirmed that rent taken in advance is a Deposit, it took over a week for them to confirm to me that any sum that could or should be returned to a tenant is a deposit" That is tantamount to them saying the legislation is hopelessly wrong and flies in the face of what the legislation actually says. No reasonable person would interpret S212 (8) as including rent as it would frustrate the other areas of the legislation; the deposit either needs to be protected at the start of the tenancy or it doesn't, they cannot have it both ways. To take the rent out of the deposit would mean unprotecting it and then reprotecting it. And as I said before, what happens when the students decide not to allow the deposit to be unprotected?? If any tenant started action against me for not protecting their rent as a deposit I'd take my chances with a judge; at the end of the day it is the judiciary who interpret the law not government departments. It doesn't suprise me that DCLG are confused about this. It was poorly written legilsation from the start. Robert May wrote "The issue is that some agents are taking Advanced rents in lieu of a deposit in order to circumvent legislation" This is a different issue; if thats the case it wasn't rent at all but a deposit and should be treated as such. I certainly wouldn't be looking to NFoPP, NALS or Sage agent for guidance at the moment; its DCLG who need to sort this out as it doesn't just impact student lets but ALL lets where rent might be collected in advance of the start date.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 29th February 2012
@ Roert May Then its a shame the story didn't make that clear at the start instead of implying that 'any and all' money inc referencing fees and rent that could or should be returned to a tenant should be treated as a deposit. Its unresearched, off the cuff articles like this that get the industry a bad name with the general public. Landlords or agents trying to bypass the deposit scheme is not just related to student lets unfortunately.
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@ Roert May Then its a shame the story didn't make that clear at the start instead of implying that 'any and all' money inc referencing fees and rent that could or should be returned to a tenant should be treated as a deposit. Its unresearched, off the cuff articles like this that get the industry a bad name with the general public. Landlords or agents trying to bypass the deposit scheme is not just related to student lets unfortunately.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 29th February 2012
Link to S45 HA1988 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/50/section/45 Everyone clear now? No? me neither? no mention of rents or deposits or any reference with even the most tenuous link I'm not shooting the messenger, I think these sort of forums are great for learning more about the industry, but it would be nice to see the message for ones self, written down in black and white instead of vague references to statute lol
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Link to S45 HA1988 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/50/section/45 Everyone clear now? No? me neither? no mention of rents or deposits or any reference with even the most tenuous link I'm not shooting the messenger, I think these sort of forums are great for learning more about the industry, but it would be nice to see the message for ones self, written down in black and white instead of vague references to statute lol
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Posted Date: Thursday 1st March 2012
I agree with EW; when Thomas & Co Rentals closed down in Milton Keynes we offered a similar helping hand those affected on both sides and mostly got abuse from angry landlords and tenants. The phrases "all agents are the same" and "I'll never use an agent again" are still ringing in my ears! Well done Glenn.
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I agree with EW; when Thomas & Co Rentals closed down in Milton Keynes we offered a similar helping hand those affected on both sides and mostly got abuse from angry landlords and tenants. The phrases "all agents are the same" and "I'll never use an agent again" are still ringing in my ears! Well done Glenn.
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Posted Date: Thursday 1st March 2012
And yet they haven't thought to mention this to their members?? We've had nothing from them at all about this
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And yet they haven't thought to mention this to their members?? We've had nothing from them at all about this
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Posted Date: Thursday 1st March 2012
@ Robert May I'm sure none of us - ok, perhaps a couple do :-) - think you are a troll or mad but this is the second time you have intimated that the collapse of a letting agent is probably due to accounting procedures without going into specifics? I'm not sure what your connection is to the industry, or how much experience you have had with letting agent collapses, but in my experience few are caused by someone paying too little VAT or paying a landlord a little bit too much rent.
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@ Robert May I'm sure none of us - ok, perhaps a couple do :-) - think you are a troll or mad but this is the second time you have intimated that the collapse of a letting agent is probably due to accounting procedures without going into specifics? I'm not sure what your connection is to the industry, or how much experience you have had with letting agent collapses, but in my experience few are caused by someone paying too little VAT or paying a landlord a little bit too much rent.
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Posted Date: Friday 2nd March 2012
The perfect metphor to prove my point!! lol Robert May posted: What happens if; brake fluid looks like brake fluid, smells like brake fluid and is the brake fluid that head office have supplied, you fix the brakes but then the driver reports that after 80 miles of a journey the brakes start to fade. You test the brakes find nothing wrong, the driver goes away comes back complaining of brake fade after 80 miles. This goes on for week after week, eventually there is an accident, the cause turns out to be the Brake fluid gassing after 80 miles. Is the garage owner culpable now? He put his faith in a brake fluid that his head office recommended, but it was only a freak circumstance of a twisty turny 80 mile commute that caused the brake fluid to gas and the brakes to fade. Every time the car went to the garage and the brakes were tested the fluid was cold and so the fading never showed up. In fairness thats going to cause your business a problem but probably won't close you down. BUT now apply that scenario to ALL of your customers turning up and complaining of brake fade. If that doesn't make you stand up and take notice then you deserve to fail. Unless of course you haven't been using the brake fluid supplied by head office but your own home made concoction so that you can pocket lots of money!
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The perfect metphor to prove my point!! lol Robert May posted: What happens if; brake fluid looks like brake fluid, smells like brake fluid and is the brake fluid that head office have supplied, you fix the brakes but then the driver reports that after 80 miles of a journey the brakes start to fade. You test the brakes find nothing wrong, the driver goes away comes back complaining of brake fade after 80 miles. This goes on for week after week, eventually there is an accident, the cause turns out to be the Brake fluid gassing after 80 miles. Is the garage owner culpable now? He put his faith in a brake fluid that his head office recommended, but it was only a freak circumstance of a twisty turny 80 mile commute that caused the brake fluid to gas and the brakes to fade. Every time the car went to the garage and the brakes were tested the fluid was cold and so the fading never showed up. In fairness thats going to cause your business a problem but probably won't close you down. BUT now apply that scenario to ALL of your customers turning up and complaining of brake fade. If that doesn't make you stand up and take notice then you deserve to fail. Unless of course you haven't been using the brake fluid supplied by head office but your own home made concoction so that you can pocket lots of money!
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Posted Date: Friday 2nd March 2012
I see that Robert, but how would that cause an agent to lose enough money, clients rent as well as deposits, to force them to close down. The landlord only gets the rent the agent collects regardless of how its calculated; whether weekly or monthly. Finances are there in black and white to be seen, the figures aren't going to change when someone checks the 'brake fluid'
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I see that Robert, but how would that cause an agent to lose enough money, clients rent as well as deposits, to force them to close down. The landlord only gets the rent the agent collects regardless of how its calculated; whether weekly or monthly. Finances are there in black and white to be seen, the figures aren't going to change when someone checks the 'brake fluid'
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Posted Date: Friday 2nd March 2012
An email arrived this morning - perhaps someone at Safeagent reads this forum and suddenly remembered to tell the agents, lol
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An email arrived this morning - perhaps someone at Safeagent reads this forum and suddenly remembered to tell the agents, lol
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Posted Date: Monday 5th March 2012
@ Balham EA So your agency agreement SPECIFICALLY gives you the right to spend a clients money on anything you want does it? If that really is the case then no, you probably haven't broken any laws at all. IF they've agreed in writing to let you use their money for your benefit, they can't complain if you do that. So what happens in the worst case scenario when you don't have enough money to pay your landlords one day? you just tell them that they can't have their rent because you've spent it all, but thats OK because you all said I could keep your money? I'm willing to bet that isn't their understanding of the agreement
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@ Balham EA So your agency agreement SPECIFICALLY gives you the right to spend a clients money on anything you want does it? If that really is the case then no, you probably haven't broken any laws at all. IF they've agreed in writing to let you use their money for your benefit, they can't complain if you do that. So what happens in the worst case scenario when you don't have enough money to pay your landlords one day? you just tell them that they can't have their rent because you've spent it all, but thats OK because you all said I could keep your money? I'm willing to bet that isn't their understanding of the agreement
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Posted Date: Monday 5th March 2012
I've prodded Robert over this as much as anyone, more than most in fact, but he has now clarified how an agent could get themselves into trouble by bad accounting and misunderstanding how the accounts package handles benefits. The personal attacks are out of order in my opinion. There is at least one lettings package out there that is/was built around most of the tenants being on benefits; I tried it, it was rubbish but at that time (lates 90's) it didn't have a working accounting side to it, just management. There are issues with some of the other pacakges; I use CFP Winman and have done since it evolved from the original APM DOS application; its not been without its issues; serious flaws in the accounting side for the first two years that left us with client accounts that didn't tally with the actuial money in the bank. But its not on its own, all of them have had teething problems and I think thats mostly due to them being written by software designers rather than letting agents. But I would say its upto the agent to know their business; if simple adding up is beyond them or they don't understand how to deal with a change in rent status to benefits, or they don't realise that giving a landlord more money than they have collected is wrong, then they have no business being an agent.
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I've prodded Robert over this as much as anyone, more than most in fact, but he has now clarified how an agent could get themselves into trouble by bad accounting and misunderstanding how the accounts package handles benefits. The personal attacks are out of order in my opinion. There is at least one lettings package out there that is/was built around most of the tenants being on benefits; I tried it, it was rubbish but at that time (lates 90's) it didn't have a working accounting side to it, just management. There are issues with some of the other pacakges; I use CFP Winman and have done since it evolved from the original APM DOS application; its not been without its issues; serious flaws in the accounting side for the first two years that left us with client accounts that didn't tally with the actuial money in the bank. But its not on its own, all of them have had teething problems and I think thats mostly due to them being written by software designers rather than letting agents. But I would say its upto the agent to know their business; if simple adding up is beyond them or they don't understand how to deal with a change in rent status to benefits, or they don't realise that giving a landlord more money than they have collected is wrong, then they have no business being an agent.
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Posted Date: Monday 5th March 2012
Sounds like Balham EA - if he is a genuine poster at all - is offering a sub letting service where his company is the tenant; he rents the property then sublets it to the actual tenant. In that scenario the rent the tenant pays actually is his not the landlords, as the rent he contractually pays to the landlord covers his liability. The fact that he didn't seem to understand the difference between that and the standard context of rent collection that the thread was discussing speaks volumes. And if all his landlords have informed their mortgage lenders that they are subletting (have they?), and the lenders have agreed to it (unlikely) then he won't be doing anything wrong at all.
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Sounds like Balham EA - if he is a genuine poster at all - is offering a sub letting service where his company is the tenant; he rents the property then sublets it to the actual tenant. In that scenario the rent the tenant pays actually is his not the landlords, as the rent he contractually pays to the landlord covers his liability. The fact that he didn't seem to understand the difference between that and the standard context of rent collection that the thread was discussing speaks volumes. And if all his landlords have informed their mortgage lenders that they are subletting (have they?), and the lenders have agreed to it (unlikely) then he won't be doing anything wrong at all.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 7th March 2012
@ Herts Agent Well said. Whilst we are members of RICS, ARLA and NALS, we would welcome a single regulatory body with no allegiance to anyone. Licensed agents and landlords would go a long way to resolving some of the issues in the industry. Educating the general public is the problem area; the only people who can do this effectively is Government - I know that sounds like an oxymoron but its true - as RICS, ARLA etc have not got the finances to run extensive national campaigns.
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@ Herts Agent Well said. Whilst we are members of RICS, ARLA and NALS, we would welcome a single regulatory body with no allegiance to anyone. Licensed agents and landlords would go a long way to resolving some of the issues in the industry. Educating the general public is the problem area; the only people who can do this effectively is Government - I know that sounds like an oxymoron but its true - as RICS, ARLA etc have not got the finances to run extensive national campaigns.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 7th March 2012
@ Robert May Theres the crux of the problem. A non profit making regulator. Where would we find such a rare beast? Do we want a repeat of the shoddy legislation that went with the deposit scheme? probably not so that rules out the govenment running it. We need a strong lobbying force from the people on the ground. The existing bodies all have their own angle on it, and rarely seem to agree with each other in public and are weak because of that. Maybe a campaign for honest agents to lobby their own MP's for change in the law?
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@ Robert May Theres the crux of the problem. A non profit making regulator. Where would we find such a rare beast? Do we want a repeat of the shoddy legislation that went with the deposit scheme? probably not so that rules out the govenment running it. We need a strong lobbying force from the people on the ground. The existing bodies all have their own angle on it, and rarely seem to agree with each other in public and are weak because of that. Maybe a campaign for honest agents to lobby their own MP's for change in the law?
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Posted Date: Thursday 8th March 2012
I agree, we use all three currently but RM still produces 85% of our leads. As you say, its web traffic that counts.
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I agree, we use all three currently but RM still produces 85% of our leads. As you say, its web traffic that counts.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 14th March 2012
Thats because the 1000 monkeys that were given a 1000 years to come up with the works of Shakespeare came up with the tenancy deposit legislation first! lol
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Thats because the 1000 monkeys that were given a 1000 years to come up with the works of Shakespeare came up with the tenancy deposit legislation first! lol
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Posted Date: Friday 16th March 2012
This is just a new slant on the 'renting is dead money' argument thats been around for years. Some years it works, some years it doesnt.
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This is just a new slant on the 'renting is dead money' argument thats been around for years. Some years it works, some years it doesnt.
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Posted Date: Friday 16th March 2012
Interesting to see ray Evans write that ARLA's staff is to vigorously promote members front line interests. I was at a regional meeting yesterday listening to Ian Potter giving us the results of a secret shopper poll. It was scary to hear that a majority of members aren't even promoting themselves. I too have been guilty of sitting on my laurels in the past and saying "what are ARLA doing for me?" but it was made crystal clear to me yesterday that its is up to members to also take an active role in promoting regulation to the general public in their own area. We will be doing our part from now on and getting every agent to be part of the ombusdsman scheme will be part of that
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Interesting to see ray Evans write that ARLA's staff is to vigorously promote members front line interests. I was at a regional meeting yesterday listening to Ian Potter giving us the results of a secret shopper poll. It was scary to hear that a majority of members aren't even promoting themselves. I too have been guilty of sitting on my laurels in the past and saying "what are ARLA doing for me?" but it was made crystal clear to me yesterday that its is up to members to also take an active role in promoting regulation to the general public in their own area. We will be doing our part from now on and getting every agent to be part of the ombusdsman scheme will be part of that
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Posted Date: Tuesday 27th March 2012
I think its time for me to retire now before the whole industry descends into a farce; how many more ridiculous moves like this can these faceless bureaucrats heap on top of the industry.
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I think its time for me to retire now before the whole industry descends into a farce; how many more ridiculous moves like this can these faceless bureaucrats heap on top of the industry.
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Posted Date: Thursday 29th March 2012
because NALS don't do anything to promote professionalism or education within the industry, just a set of standards that could be from any of the other regulatory bodies
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because NALS don't do anything to promote professionalism or education within the industry, just a set of standards that could be from any of the other regulatory bodies
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Posted Date: Thursday 29th March 2012
I'm sure they probably are hoping to promote their services but they are right, a photograph with out a written description is next to useless.
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I'm sure they probably are hoping to promote their services but they are right, a photograph with out a written description is next to useless.
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Posted Date: Thursday 29th March 2012
I think someone needs to define 'shortlist' for them; if these are the shortlists I'd hate to see the full list. Surely 3 from each region would be enough of a shortlist, not everyone who entered?
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I think someone needs to define 'shortlist' for them; if these are the shortlists I'd hate to see the full list. Surely 3 from each region would be enough of a shortlist, not everyone who entered?
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Posted Date: Thursday 29th March 2012
How is it confusing? Presumably they have invoiced the tenant for the funds prior to receipt? the invoice should state clearly what the payments are for i.e. security deposit, advance rent, admin fee etc. Are agents really confusing security deposits with a generic 'deposit' of funds?
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How is it confusing? Presumably they have invoiced the tenant for the funds prior to receipt? the invoice should state clearly what the payments are for i.e. security deposit, advance rent, admin fee etc. Are agents really confusing security deposits with a generic 'deposit' of funds?
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Posted Date: Wednesday 4th April 2012
I agree, we had out first tenant ask about an epc only within the last month - he's was an anorak about everything though. Even when we show people the epc they aren't interested in it; people like Mr Stunel need to understand that if a tenant likes the property, its in the right area and its the right price, they will take it regardless of the epc. We've got a lovely Victorian refurb consisting of 4 flats, even with the new upvc windows and insulation they still only get a low F - we almost have to fight people off with sticks when one of them comes available. The general public seem to make their fuel saving choices - if they do at all - in the way they live, not where they live.
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I agree, we had out first tenant ask about an epc only within the last month - he's was an anorak about everything though. Even when we show people the epc they aren't interested in it; people like Mr Stunel need to understand that if a tenant likes the property, its in the right area and its the right price, they will take it regardless of the epc. We've got a lovely Victorian refurb consisting of 4 flats, even with the new upvc windows and insulation they still only get a low F - we almost have to fight people off with sticks when one of them comes available. The general public seem to make their fuel saving choices - if they do at all - in the way they live, not where they live.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 11th April 2012
@EW I'd be interested to learn how you make having an inventory, regardless of who provides it, mandatory? Sure, having a solid inventory in place is a proper precaution for a landlord to take, but forcing a landlord to have one in place from your chosen provider is wrong and I doubt its enforceable.
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@EW I'd be interested to learn how you make having an inventory, regardless of who provides it, mandatory? Sure, having a solid inventory in place is a proper precaution for a landlord to take, but forcing a landlord to have one in place from your chosen provider is wrong and I doubt its enforceable.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 11th April 2012
5% is hard to make work, the £500 he collects in tenant admin and tenant find fees helps of course. Horses for courses (why are people so keen to protect their real identity/scared to use their real names on these forums?) suggests additional income streams, which is fine as long as they are all agreed with their clients if its off the back of their rental business. Saying that, their highest rent is still only £300 per week according to their website. £15600 pa only returns £780, plus their £500 fee so £1280 for a years management. Thats viable at 5% if you reduce your service level down sufficiently and get the landlord to do as much as possible himself on line. But on their £50pw properties, which they seem to have lot of, thats only £130. Again, its their high fees that saves the day. There is nothing new in advertising a headline grabbing commission rate and then quietly stuffing them with big fees.
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5% is hard to make work, the £500 he collects in tenant admin and tenant find fees helps of course. Horses for courses (why are people so keen to protect their real identity/scared to use their real names on these forums?) suggests additional income streams, which is fine as long as they are all agreed with their clients if its off the back of their rental business. Saying that, their highest rent is still only £300 per week according to their website. £15600 pa only returns £780, plus their £500 fee so £1280 for a years management. Thats viable at 5% if you reduce your service level down sufficiently and get the landlord to do as much as possible himself on line. But on their £50pw properties, which they seem to have lot of, thats only £130. Again, its their high fees that saves the day. There is nothing new in advertising a headline grabbing commission rate and then quietly stuffing them with big fees.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 11th April 2012
@IO I think you misunderstand me, I don't question the need for an inventory at all, in fact I've been quite vociferous in my support for better inventories over the years, and if I could find an independent supplier that does as good a job as they say I might consider using them. The last one we tried was so amateurish as to be laughable; 3 spelling mistakes in the address alone and two rooms missing amongst other! That was a 'qualified - full member' inventory clerk My question to EW was how they make it mandatory for a landlord to have one in place?. More to the point how do they handle it when the landlord says I don't want one? sue him for breach of contract? disinstruct themselves? report him to who for not having an inventory? Adding it in as part of your service to a landlord, and charging for it, is one thing; making it mandatory is something different. I don't think they can have any legal basis for treating an inventory in the same vein as say and EPC or Gas Safety Your analogy of making tenants take out contents insurance is probably not the best choice given the recent furore over Homelet advising their members to do exactly that lol
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@IO I think you misunderstand me, I don't question the need for an inventory at all, in fact I've been quite vociferous in my support for better inventories over the years, and if I could find an independent supplier that does as good a job as they say I might consider using them. The last one we tried was so amateurish as to be laughable; 3 spelling mistakes in the address alone and two rooms missing amongst other! That was a 'qualified - full member' inventory clerk My question to EW was how they make it mandatory for a landlord to have one in place?. More to the point how do they handle it when the landlord says I don't want one? sue him for breach of contract? disinstruct themselves? report him to who for not having an inventory? Adding it in as part of your service to a landlord, and charging for it, is one thing; making it mandatory is something different. I don't think they can have any legal basis for treating an inventory in the same vein as say and EPC or Gas Safety Your analogy of making tenants take out contents insurance is probably not the best choice given the recent furore over Homelet advising their members to do exactly that lol
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Posted Date: Thursday 12th April 2012
@horses for courses I simply wondered aloud why people choose not to use their own names on these forums; I don't believe I questioned the integrity of your post, nor did I suggest that using my own name made mine more pertinent. You're certainly not alone in wishing to post anonymously. Perhaps I hit a nerve? I don't believe I speculated on the agents income at all. He openly declares that he charges 5% commission. His website provides the information about his other charges, £250 from the landlord for a tenant find fee and also £250 from the tenant for an admin fee. It doesn't say whether that is per tenant so in fact, rather than speculate, I took it as a singular payment. In what way is that speculation? I can't speak for others users here but I have been running letting agencies for close on 25 years, 20 of those years either in senior management or on a management consultancy basis. I think I have a good idea of the running costs of a letting agency, from a manual system through to a (mostly) automated system and the same is true of all of them - the commission figure is meaningless, its what your total income is that is important. If this agent really could manage his portfolio on JUST 5% commission income then he wouldn't need to take fees too, would he?
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@horses for courses I simply wondered aloud why people choose not to use their own names on these forums; I don't believe I questioned the integrity of your post, nor did I suggest that using my own name made mine more pertinent. You're certainly not alone in wishing to post anonymously. Perhaps I hit a nerve? I don't believe I speculated on the agents income at all. He openly declares that he charges 5% commission. His website provides the information about his other charges, £250 from the landlord for a tenant find fee and also £250 from the tenant for an admin fee. It doesn't say whether that is per tenant so in fact, rather than speculate, I took it as a singular payment. In what way is that speculation? I can't speak for others users here but I have been running letting agencies for close on 25 years, 20 of those years either in senior management or on a management consultancy basis. I think I have a good idea of the running costs of a letting agency, from a manual system through to a (mostly) automated system and the same is true of all of them - the commission figure is meaningless, its what your total income is that is important. If this agent really could manage his portfolio on JUST 5% commission income then he wouldn't need to take fees too, would he?
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Posted Date: Thursday 12th April 2012
@ IO We couldn't afford to turn down business on that basis, I can understand the 'big boys' doing it but they are making considerably more than most. I take your point regarding volume, unfortunately with a few over 500 properties managed we are a long way from being able to dictate mandatory inventories to landlords. I must crack the whip a bit harder!
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@ IO We couldn't afford to turn down business on that basis, I can understand the 'big boys' doing it but they are making considerably more than most. I take your point regarding volume, unfortunately with a few over 500 properties managed we are a long way from being able to dictate mandatory inventories to landlords. I must crack the whip a bit harder!
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Posted Date: Tuesday 17th April 2012
This is, unfortunately, what happens when junior ministers and civil servants come up with an idea, put it through the Bill process and create a new law WITHOUT consulting the judiciary first.
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This is, unfortunately, what happens when junior ministers and civil servants come up with an idea, put it through the Bill process and create a new law WITHOUT consulting the judiciary first.
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Posted Date: Thursday 19th April 2012
yeah, yeah, yeah - until the day they get elected then all these wondrous utopian ideals will all be dropped as the non starters they actually are. I'd still like to see the business model behind Ken's idea and a guarantee than council tax payers won't be footing the bill. I'd also like to see Jennifer Aniston in a negligee cooking my breakfast, probably more chance of that happening than kens revealing his plans.
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yeah, yeah, yeah - until the day they get elected then all these wondrous utopian ideals will all be dropped as the non starters they actually are. I'd still like to see the business model behind Ken's idea and a guarantee than council tax payers won't be footing the bill. I'd also like to see Jennifer Aniston in a negligee cooking my breakfast, probably more chance of that happening than kens revealing his plans.
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Posted Date: Friday 20th April 2012
Ken's released his manifesto today. HisTenants Charter will bring a level of standards to private letting including deposit protection ....oh, hang on, hasn't that already been done by someone else? And he's going to campaign for legislation for a fairer system to control rent increases ..oh, oops, don't we have that already with the RAC? Just a rehash of existing legislation and the hope that alndlords will be 'fair' and reduce their rent. Good luck with that, lol
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Ken's released his manifesto today. HisTenants Charter will bring a level of standards to private letting including deposit protection ....oh, hang on, hasn't that already been done by someone else? And he's going to campaign for legislation for a fairer system to control rent increases ..oh, oops, don't we have that already with the RAC? Just a rehash of existing legislation and the hope that alndlords will be 'fair' and reduce their rent. Good luck with that, lol
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Posted Date: Wednesday 25th April 2012
KDH!! Now there's a name from the distant past. I thought he was mincing around london somewhere. I worked for him for a while before he 'left' Milton Keynes, not my finest moment I have to say. I think his exploits have been advertised widely enough on the inter web and Private Eye without me adding anything new.
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KDH!! Now there's a name from the distant past. I thought he was mincing around london somewhere. I worked for him for a while before he 'left' Milton Keynes, not my finest moment I have to say. I think his exploits have been advertised widely enough on the inter web and Private Eye without me adding anything new.
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Posted Date: Monday 30th April 2012
@ sullomeo A bit misguided there my friend. Joe Public needs to live within their means, and if that means that LHA tenants have to live within our means too, then why shouldn't they? If they can't afford to live in one town then they need to move like the rest of us. Regardless of what caused the issu, thats what they need to do - in their case they actually have someone who's prepared to do the searching for them. Market rents didn't deter benefit claimants from choosing very expensive houses to live in when they were looking so they have to accept the consequences in the same way that a person who takes out a big mortgage has to when houyse prices plummet. LHA caps promote common sense use of the public purse, something that this country has needed for a long time.
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@ sullomeo A bit misguided there my friend. Joe Public needs to live within their means, and if that means that LHA tenants have to live within our means too, then why shouldn't they? If they can't afford to live in one town then they need to move like the rest of us. Regardless of what caused the issu, thats what they need to do - in their case they actually have someone who's prepared to do the searching for them. Market rents didn't deter benefit claimants from choosing very expensive houses to live in when they were looking so they have to accept the consequences in the same way that a person who takes out a big mortgage has to when houyse prices plummet. LHA caps promote common sense use of the public purse, something that this country has needed for a long time.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 2nd May 2012
With respect the cap does exactly that. It recognises that the public purse is being relentlessly hammered by high rent claims from benefit claimants taht are unsustainable, thats why it was introduced. If people can't afford to live in London then they have to move, simple. The ridiculous utopian fantasies that capping rent claims would drive rents down was just that, a fantasy. London is no different from any other capital city in the world; if you want to live in one you have to be prepared to pay the price; if you can't afford it why should the public purse - thats our tax money by the way - pay for it.
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With respect the cap does exactly that. It recognises that the public purse is being relentlessly hammered by high rent claims from benefit claimants taht are unsustainable, thats why it was introduced. If people can't afford to live in London then they have to move, simple. The ridiculous utopian fantasies that capping rent claims would drive rents down was just that, a fantasy. London is no different from any other capital city in the world; if you want to live in one you have to be prepared to pay the price; if you can't afford it why should the public purse - thats our tax money by the way - pay for it.
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Posted Date: Thursday 10th May 2012
Welcome to the throw away society! Boiler manufacturers are no different from many other manufacturers in every industry. Build something to last forever and watch your profits fall through the floor. Why? because you will sell less replacement parts that have the highest profit margin. Intersting that IO should mention Worcester Bosch; we had to replace one of theirs recently that was only just over two years old as it had corroded internally. They wouldn't budge on it at all; as far as they were concerned if a boiler has failed outside of its warranty period then that was the natural life of that unit!! When I asked if they thought replacing a boiler every two years was reasonable they said yes, as long as you replaced it with one of their units! Good luck with this Anthony but as IO points out, sadly I doubt you will get anywhere with it.
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Welcome to the throw away society! Boiler manufacturers are no different from many other manufacturers in every industry. Build something to last forever and watch your profits fall through the floor. Why? because you will sell less replacement parts that have the highest profit margin. Intersting that IO should mention Worcester Bosch; we had to replace one of theirs recently that was only just over two years old as it had corroded internally. They wouldn't budge on it at all; as far as they were concerned if a boiler has failed outside of its warranty period then that was the natural life of that unit!! When I asked if they thought replacing a boiler every two years was reasonable they said yes, as long as you replaced it with one of their units! Good luck with this Anthony but as IO points out, sadly I doubt you will get anywhere with it.
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Posted Date: Thursday 10th May 2012
I should have said that the experience we had with this landlords property wouldn't stop me installing a WB in my home if I had to; it was more an expose on customer service from big companies rather than damning the product itself. Our engineer is approved by WB and Gloworm; I asked him his opinion a few minutes ago when he came into the office. If he he had to replace his boiler today he would go for a Gloworm simply because he believes the current range is slightly better that the current WB range. Vaillant run ok but we find parts expensive as they usually have to come from Europe. New boilers are packed with efficiency measures to meet targets, the more complicated a unit is, the more there is to go wrong. Especially when you consider its only function is to heat water: imagine if the same efficiency measures were applied to a kettle!
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I should have said that the experience we had with this landlords property wouldn't stop me installing a WB in my home if I had to; it was more an expose on customer service from big companies rather than damning the product itself. Our engineer is approved by WB and Gloworm; I asked him his opinion a few minutes ago when he came into the office. If he he had to replace his boiler today he would go for a Gloworm simply because he believes the current range is slightly better that the current WB range. Vaillant run ok but we find parts expensive as they usually have to come from Europe. New boilers are packed with efficiency measures to meet targets, the more complicated a unit is, the more there is to go wrong. Especially when you consider its only function is to heat water: imagine if the same efficiency measures were applied to a kettle!
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Posted Date: Thursday 10th May 2012
I think Darius and Adam are about to find out that new technology can only reduce costs by so much; after that you need an old fashioned human being - or employee as they are sometimes called - to step in. the more you scale it up the more people you will need. We've started using document signing technology, online reference completion, fast payment systems, electronic inventories, data feed for updating websites and portals, etc, we're also looking at automatic bank credit allocation systems and an automated maintenance handling system. All of these systems save us time, and a bit of money, but it hasn't reduced the number of people we need to run the business. We still need people to operate them and that is where the real costs come in; not just in employment costs but in the space for them to work, holiday pay, sick and maternity pay etc etc Saving a ream of paper and some postage costs each week using document signing technology is a good start but it doesn't make a dent in the cost of an employee.
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I think Darius and Adam are about to find out that new technology can only reduce costs by so much; after that you need an old fashioned human being - or employee as they are sometimes called - to step in. the more you scale it up the more people you will need. We've started using document signing technology, online reference completion, fast payment systems, electronic inventories, data feed for updating websites and portals, etc, we're also looking at automatic bank credit allocation systems and an automated maintenance handling system. All of these systems save us time, and a bit of money, but it hasn't reduced the number of people we need to run the business. We still need people to operate them and that is where the real costs come in; not just in employment costs but in the space for them to work, holiday pay, sick and maternity pay etc etc Saving a ream of paper and some postage costs each week using document signing technology is a good start but it doesn't make a dent in the cost of an employee.
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Posted Date: Friday 11th May 2012
@ Chris It beggars belief that they think we can't count. Its easy to get upto 870,000 deposits when you're not returning them. Yet again we are faced with a situation where they are keeping the deposit - they call it suspended - because the judge on a straight forward AP eviction hearing hasn't confirmed that the deposit can be returned - even though there is no money order and copies of the eviction order and other court paperwork was included. Paperwork returned to us? not on your nelly, it went straight in the bin probably, not even a phonecall, email or letter to advise us. Last one took them 8 months before they paid out; this one the landlord will in all probability lose his house first :( They'll have a few less deposits to worry about by the time I've transferred all of our over to our account with TDS
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@ Chris It beggars belief that they think we can't count. Its easy to get upto 870,000 deposits when you're not returning them. Yet again we are faced with a situation where they are keeping the deposit - they call it suspended - because the judge on a straight forward AP eviction hearing hasn't confirmed that the deposit can be returned - even though there is no money order and copies of the eviction order and other court paperwork was included. Paperwork returned to us? not on your nelly, it went straight in the bin probably, not even a phonecall, email or letter to advise us. Last one took them 8 months before they paid out; this one the landlord will in all probability lose his house first :( They'll have a few less deposits to worry about by the time I've transferred all of our over to our account with TDS
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Posted Date: Monday 14th May 2012
@ IO I'm suprised at your post. Yes it's the landlord who wants reassurance that the tenant is who they say they are, that they are financially stable and haven't trashed their last home. But the tenant figures in this as well; they are the ones who want a new home, they are the ones who want to be considered for a new property. Try to imagine the carnage if it didn't cost a tenant anything to roll the dice; everyone and his dog would apply for a property regardless of their credit history if it was free. We're not like other industries, we have a lot more interest in tenants than just the credit history which a £2 call to experian could get us.
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@ IO I'm suprised at your post. Yes it's the landlord who wants reassurance that the tenant is who they say they are, that they are financially stable and haven't trashed their last home. But the tenant figures in this as well; they are the ones who want a new home, they are the ones who want to be considered for a new property. Try to imagine the carnage if it didn't cost a tenant anything to roll the dice; everyone and his dog would apply for a property regardless of their credit history if it was free. We're not like other industries, we have a lot more interest in tenants than just the credit history which a £2 call to experian could get us.
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Posted Date: Monday 14th May 2012
@ IO That's exactly my point, he or she doesn't have anything to say about it. After speaking to three different people at DPS, it quickly became apparent that they probably don't know the difference between a monetary order and a relatively straight forward APP eviction hearing. They keep referring to their rule 29 but its clear they don't know why one would obtain a court order for possession that wouldn't have a monetary order. My one and only attempt at getting a judge, via counsel, to include the words " This judgement does not affect the tenants deposit held by the DPS" or similar met with a very stony "No, it is not relevant to this matter" Rule 29 of the DPS scheme rules is at fault because it fails to recognise that a court order might be for something other than a monetary award.
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@ IO That's exactly my point, he or she doesn't have anything to say about it. After speaking to three different people at DPS, it quickly became apparent that they probably don't know the difference between a monetary order and a relatively straight forward APP eviction hearing. They keep referring to their rule 29 but its clear they don't know why one would obtain a court order for possession that wouldn't have a monetary order. My one and only attempt at getting a judge, via counsel, to include the words " This judgement does not affect the tenants deposit held by the DPS" or similar met with a very stony "No, it is not relevant to this matter" Rule 29 of the DPS scheme rules is at fault because it fails to recognise that a court order might be for something other than a monetary award.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 16th May 2012
My Wife lived in Southall in the 70's; there were converted garages and sheds in the back gardens back then with people living in them. There is no news here.
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My Wife lived in Southall in the 70's; there were converted garages and sheds in the back gardens back then with people living in them. There is no news here.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 22nd May 2012
DCLG - where do they get their data from? Do they simply lie to the public because they are too lazy to find out the truth?
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DCLG - where do they get their data from? Do they simply lie to the public because they are too lazy to find out the truth?
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Posted Date: Thursday 24th May 2012
So rents haven't gone up? can't wait for tomorrow and the next gripping installment as the great rents up/rents down saga continues. Really LAT? is this all thats happening out there?
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So rents haven't gone up? can't wait for tomorrow and the next gripping installment as the great rents up/rents down saga continues. Really LAT? is this all thats happening out there?
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Posted Date: Thursday 24th May 2012
Why does no one ever survey landlords, and see how they feel about having their investments damaged, left dirty, stolen etc etc. I'm suprised this 'story' doesn't have the usual tagline "of copurse, if they used our inventory services blah blah blah"
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Why does no one ever survey landlords, and see how they feel about having their investments damaged, left dirty, stolen etc etc. I'm suprised this 'story' doesn't have the usual tagline "of copurse, if they used our inventory services blah blah blah"
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Posted Date: Tuesday 29th May 2012
I wonder if they will be targeting the upfront fees for mortgages next? or the deposits on new cars? how about having to pay brokers fees on insurance? Are any of these people ever capable of joined up thinking? Where will tenants go if the majority of agents decide to shut up shop rather than cut their profits to the bone, the local councils? they can't cope now.
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I wonder if they will be targeting the upfront fees for mortgages next? or the deposits on new cars? how about having to pay brokers fees on insurance? Are any of these people ever capable of joined up thinking? Where will tenants go if the majority of agents decide to shut up shop rather than cut their profits to the bone, the local councils? they can't cope now.
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Posted Date: Friday 1st June 2012
Oh give it a rest Dave - oh sorry, rantnrave, you've been baging this drum for ever and you ain't convincing anyone.
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Oh give it a rest Dave - oh sorry, rantnrave, you've been baging this drum for ever and you ain't convincing anyone.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 6th June 2012
He is barking isn't he. Quite how Dave sees rising costs and interest rates, large deposits etc as conducive to the increase in mortgages is beyond my humble understanding of finance; he has always tried to avoid answering so I guess I'll never know.
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He is barking isn't he. Quite how Dave sees rising costs and interest rates, large deposits etc as conducive to the increase in mortgages is beyond my humble understanding of finance; he has always tried to avoid answering so I guess I'll never know.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 12th June 2012
Could it just be that tenants don't bother to read what they are given?; I've had tenants where I've had to almost pin them into their seat to get them to read an agreement.
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Could it just be that tenants don't bother to read what they are given?; I've had tenants where I've had to almost pin them into their seat to get them to read an agreement.
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Posted Date: Thursday 14th June 2012
Anyone care to take a bet that this 'special taskforce' will cost more to set up and operate than the amount they will recover?
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Anyone care to take a bet that this 'special taskforce' will cost more to set up and operate than the amount they will recover?
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Posted Date: Thursday 14th June 2012
Still not happened though has it, Dave? How long have you been sounding the death knell now? 12+ months? Wishing for it to happen won't make it happen; if that was the case I'd be living in luxury with a fleet of Bentleys.
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Still not happened though has it, Dave? How long have you been sounding the death knell now? 12+ months? Wishing for it to happen won't make it happen; if that was the case I'd be living in luxury with a fleet of Bentleys.
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Posted Date: Thursday 14th June 2012
Dave posted: "its happening now in parts of the country,the figures are distorted by london and south east " OK, time to put your money where your mouth is Dave. Provide us with the evidence that your 'prediction' is actually already happening. Show us conclusive evidence of: Where the property bubble has burst - by this one would assume property prices have fallen through the floor Where, in those areas, BTL portfolios are being put up for sale or given away. And that previous renters are now snapping up those, or other properties, at affordable prices. It would follow, surely, that your evidence would also show that the rental market has completely collapsed in those areas. In this world of information sharing, it shouldn't be a herculean task to show us quite quickly the data that you base your assumptions on.
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Dave posted: "its happening now in parts of the country,the figures are distorted by london and south east " OK, time to put your money where your mouth is Dave. Provide us with the evidence that your 'prediction' is actually already happening. Show us conclusive evidence of: Where the property bubble has burst - by this one would assume property prices have fallen through the floor Where, in those areas, BTL portfolios are being put up for sale or given away. And that previous renters are now snapping up those, or other properties, at affordable prices. It would follow, surely, that your evidence would also show that the rental market has completely collapsed in those areas. In this world of information sharing, it shouldn't be a herculean task to show us quite quickly the data that you base your assumptions on.
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Posted Date: Thursday 14th June 2012
@ Dave "http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/Burnley.html?sortByPriceDescending=false " Are you kidding? A derelict house for £14k in Burnley isn't a sign of a burst property bubble; if it was the house opposite that sold for £62k in 2007 wouldn't be worth £48k now would it? it would be worth 14K too 2/10 Nice try but no coconut And why have none of the first time buyers not snapped it up at £14k? Because its a depressed area through lack of employment, not because they have no money from paying too much rent. 1/10 Must try harder. Oh, and I searched for BTL property portfolios to buy in Burnley - if you're correct I might as well try to make some money out of it right? - and guess what? there weren't any that I could see - why is that? Because an average £350pcm on a 2 bed in Burnley produces a 30% ROI on a £14 k house, thats why. If I owned a portfolio up there, with a lot of DSS tenants paying me £350pcm i wouldn't want to sell up; in fact I'd be adding properties as qucik as I could. 0/10 Completely missed the target
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@ Dave "http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/Burnley.html?sortByPriceDescending=false " Are you kidding? A derelict house for £14k in Burnley isn't a sign of a burst property bubble; if it was the house opposite that sold for £62k in 2007 wouldn't be worth £48k now would it? it would be worth 14K too 2/10 Nice try but no coconut And why have none of the first time buyers not snapped it up at £14k? Because its a depressed area through lack of employment, not because they have no money from paying too much rent. 1/10 Must try harder. Oh, and I searched for BTL property portfolios to buy in Burnley - if you're correct I might as well try to make some money out of it right? - and guess what? there weren't any that I could see - why is that? Because an average £350pcm on a 2 bed in Burnley produces a 30% ROI on a £14 k house, thats why. If I owned a portfolio up there, with a lot of DSS tenants paying me £350pcm i wouldn't want to sell up; in fact I'd be adding properties as qucik as I could. 0/10 Completely missed the target
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Posted Date: Tuesday 26th June 2012
“Good landlords have nothing to fear from this scheme. For the bad ones, this a clear message they must clean up their act – or pay the price" I think we all know that it will be the good landlordfs who will end up paying the price - they'll pay the license fee like all tax paying responsible people do and the bad ones will continue to get away with it like they do now. We still have rogue landlords around here who won't get a gas safety check done.
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“Good landlords have nothing to fear from this scheme. For the bad ones, this a clear message they must clean up their act – or pay the price" I think we all know that it will be the good landlordfs who will end up paying the price - they'll pay the license fee like all tax paying responsible people do and the bad ones will continue to get away with it like they do now. We still have rogue landlords around here who won't get a gas safety check done.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 26th June 2012
This makes interesting reading: http://www.newham.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/77E422D1-28C2-4908-8D08-682A27E3BCE7/0/PropertyLicensingGuideleaflet.pdf Discuss.
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This makes interesting reading: http://www.newham.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/77E422D1-28C2-4908-8D08-682A27E3BCE7/0/PropertyLicensingGuideleaflet.pdf Discuss.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 26th June 2012
This makes interesting reading: http://www.newham.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/77E422D1-28C2-4908-8D08-682A27E3BCE7/0/PropertyLicensingGuideleaflet.pdf No mentiopn of EPC,s, gas safety, deposit protection scheme membership, fire safety checks for HMO's. Why aren't they looking at any of this sort of stuff?? I suspect it is as Jimmy says, just a revenue building landlord tax Discuss.
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This makes interesting reading: http://www.newham.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/77E422D1-28C2-4908-8D08-682A27E3BCE7/0/PropertyLicensingGuideleaflet.pdf No mentiopn of EPC,s, gas safety, deposit protection scheme membership, fire safety checks for HMO's. Why aren't they looking at any of this sort of stuff?? I suspect it is as Jimmy says, just a revenue building landlord tax Discuss.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 26th June 2012
How many local authorities will see this and start adding up the figures for their own rental 'cash cow'? I predict these sort of schemes will be brought in nationwide within the next 5 years. Shelter and all the other tenant help groups will jump on the bandwagon with their typical lack of vision eagerness to hurt landlords and, apart from costing landlords and boosting local authorities coffers, it will achieve exactly nothing as none of them will have the manpower or intestinal fortitude to do anything about rogue landlords if they find them.
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How many local authorities will see this and start adding up the figures for their own rental 'cash cow'? I predict these sort of schemes will be brought in nationwide within the next 5 years. Shelter and all the other tenant help groups will jump on the bandwagon with their typical lack of vision eagerness to hurt landlords and, apart from costing landlords and boosting local authorities coffers, it will achieve exactly nothing as none of them will have the manpower or intestinal fortitude to do anything about rogue landlords if they find them.
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Posted Date: Friday 29th June 2012
I question their figures - 80% increase in calls doesn't mean that there is an 80% increase in genuine complaints. I'd give them a little more credit if it wasn't for the blind devotion so many of their staff have towards proving their tenant is right, no matter what the evidence to the contrary may say.
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I question their figures - 80% increase in calls doesn't mean that there is an 80% increase in genuine complaints. I'd give them a little more credit if it wasn't for the blind devotion so many of their staff have towards proving their tenant is right, no matter what the evidence to the contrary may say.
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Posted Date: Monday 2nd July 2012
I think if any of us had 1in 4 problem tenants we'd just shut up shop, it would be more trouble than its worth. It needs a sizeable group of private landlords to get together to fight it for anything to happen; to demand to see the evidence that their tenants are the issue.
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I think if any of us had 1in 4 problem tenants we'd just shut up shop, it would be more trouble than its worth. It needs a sizeable group of private landlords to get together to fight it for anything to happen; to demand to see the evidence that their tenants are the issue.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 3rd July 2012
@ dave looking on the bright side, if that does happen we won't have to listen to your doom mongering anymore
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@ dave looking on the bright side, if that does happen we won't have to listen to your doom mongering anymore
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Posted Date: Tuesday 3rd July 2012
It will be interesting to see how NALS reacts to landlord or tenant wanting to claim on the CMP; I'm willing to bet it will be "sorry, they were not members at the point they went under" This will be another Kings of Brighton fiasco when landlords tried claiming on the old ARLA fidelity bond in the 90's
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It will be interesting to see how NALS reacts to landlord or tenant wanting to claim on the CMP; I'm willing to bet it will be "sorry, they were not members at the point they went under" This will be another Kings of Brighton fiasco when landlords tried claiming on the old ARLA fidelity bond in the 90's
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Posted Date: Wednesday 4th July 2012
@ eromallid I don't think any of the TDP providers would be keen to renew their contractsa if they ever thought they would have to pay out on something like this, so while I think the basis of your suggestion is good, I doubt it will ever happen. We had a large unregulated agent go bust here in Milton Keynes in March/April last year. The figures involved haven't been released to the general public yet but they are truly astounding; makes this look one look like penny pinching. Both co owners have been made bankrupt, no one got any money back. All the deposits had been registered with one of the insurance based schemes but the LA was kicked out about a year before they went bust. The scheme didn't write to ONE single landlord and very few of the tenants by all accounts; they left it to the agent to pass on the news and, suprise suprise, he didn't let on. We tried to help half a dozen tenants claim but they were all rejected on the grounds that they company was no longer covered.
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@ eromallid I don't think any of the TDP providers would be keen to renew their contractsa if they ever thought they would have to pay out on something like this, so while I think the basis of your suggestion is good, I doubt it will ever happen. We had a large unregulated agent go bust here in Milton Keynes in March/April last year. The figures involved haven't been released to the general public yet but they are truly astounding; makes this look one look like penny pinching. Both co owners have been made bankrupt, no one got any money back. All the deposits had been registered with one of the insurance based schemes but the LA was kicked out about a year before they went bust. The scheme didn't write to ONE single landlord and very few of the tenants by all accounts; they left it to the agent to pass on the news and, suprise suprise, he didn't let on. We tried to help half a dozen tenants claim but they were all rejected on the grounds that they company was no longer covered.
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Posted Date: Friday 6th July 2012
Get used to it, we've had 'positive' discrimination - which seems to be acceptable to the people who can't be challenged about it, government, councils, police etc - in this country for years. On the one hand we have companies being forced to employ more people of a certain gender/race/ability to make the numbers 'equal', on the other we have failing standards because of it when we employ people without the qualifications or skills we need to meet a target because they'll be allowed to sue us if we don't. While the anti racist lobby remains bigger than the common sense lobby, it will always discriminate against the weaker majority by forcing minority views upon it.
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Get used to it, we've had 'positive' discrimination - which seems to be acceptable to the people who can't be challenged about it, government, councils, police etc - in this country for years. On the one hand we have companies being forced to employ more people of a certain gender/race/ability to make the numbers 'equal', on the other we have failing standards because of it when we employ people without the qualifications or skills we need to meet a target because they'll be allowed to sue us if we don't. While the anti racist lobby remains bigger than the common sense lobby, it will always discriminate against the weaker majority by forcing minority views upon it.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 10th July 2012
@ jimmy Sweeping generalisations are rarely taken as conclusive evidence of a wrongdoing Next time don't leave a property dirty and you won't get charged.
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@ jimmy Sweeping generalisations are rarely taken as conclusive evidence of a wrongdoing Next time don't leave a property dirty and you won't get charged.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 10th July 2012
@ Jimmy I do hope you have a good brief; by stating I am 'another culprit' I take that to mean you are accusing me personally, on a public forum, of being one of these agents. Provide your evidence here and now that I am guilty of any such practises or retract it in full And there was no slur - you stated that you had plenty of experience of agents charging you for cleaning.
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@ Jimmy I do hope you have a good brief; by stating I am 'another culprit' I take that to mean you are accusing me personally, on a public forum, of being one of these agents. Provide your evidence here and now that I am guilty of any such practises or retract it in full And there was no slur - you stated that you had plenty of experience of agents charging you for cleaning.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 10th July 2012
@ Jimmy You haven't retracted. You apologised for being unable to spell 'culprit'. Your libellous comment has caused great offence so please retract.
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@ Jimmy You haven't retracted. You apologised for being unable to spell 'culprit'. Your libellous comment has caused great offence so please retract.
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Posted Date: Friday 13th July 2012
@ industry insider Thank you, I'm glad I'm not the only one who knew what Ian meant in his comment.
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@ industry insider Thank you, I'm glad I'm not the only one who knew what Ian meant in his comment.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 17th July 2012
As much as I would like to see the cowboys gone from the industry, and welcome any step in the right direction to prevent people from losing out, is government regulation going to be the answer? For starters, they won't listen to the industry to find out what is needed, they would just set half a dozen civil servants to work in the hope they come up with something, like the HIP's fiasco and deposit legislation. The cost of government legislation would be burdensome to all but the biggest players. And even if they got it right, would it stop it happening? Probably not. Solicitors are heavily regulated, they go bust and take their client funds with them. The banks? that speaks for itself.
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As much as I would like to see the cowboys gone from the industry, and welcome any step in the right direction to prevent people from losing out, is government regulation going to be the answer? For starters, they won't listen to the industry to find out what is needed, they would just set half a dozen civil servants to work in the hope they come up with something, like the HIP's fiasco and deposit legislation. The cost of government legislation would be burdensome to all but the biggest players. And even if they got it right, would it stop it happening? Probably not. Solicitors are heavily regulated, they go bust and take their client funds with them. The banks? that speaks for itself.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 17th July 2012
Claims under the RICS cmp must be registered within 6 months of the discovery of loss. It is a last resort policy.
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Claims under the RICS cmp must be registered within 6 months of the discovery of loss. It is a last resort policy.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 17th July 2012
The RICS limits are in fact much higher than ARLA, upto £50k per client and £5.3million in any year as opposed to Arla's £25k per client (limited to no more than three months rent to any landlord) and £3 million in any one year BUT limited to only £500k for any one member
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The RICS limits are in fact much higher than ARLA, upto £50k per client and £5.3million in any year as opposed to Arla's £25k per client (limited to no more than three months rent to any landlord) and £3 million in any one year BUT limited to only £500k for any one member
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Posted Date: Tuesday 17th July 2012
Tenants who are too scared to complain? where do these mythical creatures live? I've never seen one. But I've seen plenty over the years: who won't pay their rent, who abuse the landlords property, who ignore the terms of the tenancy agreements who have no idea how to clean who are rude and aggresive who believe their 'rights' give them carte blanche to do as they will Go back to writing fiction, instead of spouting it in parliment
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Tenants who are too scared to complain? where do these mythical creatures live? I've never seen one. But I've seen plenty over the years: who won't pay their rent, who abuse the landlords property, who ignore the terms of the tenancy agreements who have no idea how to clean who are rude and aggresive who believe their 'rights' give them carte blanche to do as they will Go back to writing fiction, instead of spouting it in parliment
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Posted Date: Tuesday 17th July 2012
If thats the worst he gets then he's got off lucky
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If thats the worst he gets then he's got off lucky
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Posted Date: Wednesday 18th July 2012
Ray is right, Government intervention, especially handed to the LA to administer, would be counter productive to the industry. We have to find a way to make self regulation work so everyone is singing from the same sheet, and that can only happen if the 'regulatory bodies' we have; ARLA, NALS, NAEA, TPOS etc all start talking to each other rather than sniping at each other. And the only people who can make that happen is the agents themselves; if we could only be bothered to start thinking about the industry for 10 minutes instead of ourselves.
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Ray is right, Government intervention, especially handed to the LA to administer, would be counter productive to the industry. We have to find a way to make self regulation work so everyone is singing from the same sheet, and that can only happen if the 'regulatory bodies' we have; ARLA, NALS, NAEA, TPOS etc all start talking to each other rather than sniping at each other. And the only people who can make that happen is the agents themselves; if we could only be bothered to start thinking about the industry for 10 minutes instead of ourselves.
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Posted Date: Friday 20th July 2012
@ Stonhenge In a nutshell! Thats exactly what happens. I went to a house on Wednesday for a valuation. Landlord has already given the house to another agent but wanted a second valuation. Wasn't remotely interested in CMP or regulatory bodies, just in what we would charge. When I asked about his EPC he said he didn't have one; when I pointed out he needed one to be able to market the property he said the other agent (unregulated, working from back bedroom at home) told him 'there are ways around that' and 'not to waste his money' He then tells me the guy is doing it for 5%!! The other agent will fail and we'll get tarnished along with it.
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@ Stonhenge In a nutshell! Thats exactly what happens. I went to a house on Wednesday for a valuation. Landlord has already given the house to another agent but wanted a second valuation. Wasn't remotely interested in CMP or regulatory bodies, just in what we would charge. When I asked about his EPC he said he didn't have one; when I pointed out he needed one to be able to market the property he said the other agent (unregulated, working from back bedroom at home) told him 'there are ways around that' and 'not to waste his money' He then tells me the guy is doing it for 5%!! The other agent will fail and we'll get tarnished along with it.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 24th July 2012
And are we suprised? why pay over £4000 a week for a flat when you could get a hotel room for the same period for substantially less.
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And are we suprised? why pay over £4000 a week for a flat when you could get a hotel room for the same period for substantially less.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 24th July 2012
Am I being dense here? if they eject say, a 1000 of these private tenants, and replace them with a 1000 council tenants, does that not still leave a 1000 tenants with nowhere to live? and turning upmarket areas back into sink estates into the bargain
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Am I being dense here? if they eject say, a 1000 of these private tenants, and replace them with a 1000 council tenants, does that not still leave a 1000 tenants with nowhere to live? and turning upmarket areas back into sink estates into the bargain
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Posted Date: Tuesday 24th July 2012
Good to see the courts backing up the public by making people like this pay
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Good to see the courts backing up the public by making people like this pay
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Posted Date: Tuesday 7th August 2012
Sadly I think you're right; it will come our way. The really sad part is that the rogue landlords, and to a degree the rogue agents, won't be affected. They'll just carry on regardless in the same way as they do now, this will just be one more regulation they will ignore like gas safety's, deposit legislation etc
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Sadly I think you're right; it will come our way. The really sad part is that the rogue landlords, and to a degree the rogue agents, won't be affected. They'll just carry on regardless in the same way as they do now, this will just be one more regulation they will ignore like gas safety's, deposit legislation etc
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Posted Date: Thursday 6th September 2012
I think government will be watching Scotland very closely at the moment; if the stories about agencies closing down in droves is true then local authorities will be placed under huge pressure as tenants look to them for housing. Our government will avoid that like the plague and if that means leaving the fees alone, thats what they will do. @ IO - its not ambiguous when read in context - no fees in connection with preparing or renewing a lease. But agents have been careful not to charge for that but for the other work involved; referencing, check ins, etc. It becomes ambiguous when an agent argues that charging someone for references is nothing to do with preparing a lease; yes its connected in the process of arranging a tenancy but is it directly part of preparing a lease i.e. the tenancy agreement itself? probably not. That said I would love to see a cap of some sort introduced on fees to stop the cowboys.
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I think government will be watching Scotland very closely at the moment; if the stories about agencies closing down in droves is true then local authorities will be placed under huge pressure as tenants look to them for housing. Our government will avoid that like the plague and if that means leaving the fees alone, thats what they will do. @ IO - its not ambiguous when read in context - no fees in connection with preparing or renewing a lease. But agents have been careful not to charge for that but for the other work involved; referencing, check ins, etc. It becomes ambiguous when an agent argues that charging someone for references is nothing to do with preparing a lease; yes its connected in the process of arranging a tenancy but is it directly part of preparing a lease i.e. the tenancy agreement itself? probably not. That said I would love to see a cap of some sort introduced on fees to stop the cowboys.
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Posted Date: Friday 7th September 2012
@ why always we Good point - we tried getting tenants to take out their own credit referencing for a while with one of the major reference providers in exactly the way you suggest in an effort to reduce their costs and our administration costs/burden. What a fiasco! We spent more time chasing applicants - thus more cost to us - than we did when we did it for them. They would select the cheapest option when told they had to take the full reference to be accepted; they wouldn't complete the forms properly; they would try to change the results, it was just a nightmare. Trying to get a uniform reasonable fee agreed by all agents is next to impossible for the reasons you give; equally it won't work if we have to charge the landlord and he ultimately adds it to the rent unless all landlords increase rents to the same amount. There is no simple answer to the problem and anyone who thinks it is simple is barking mad and should work for shelter
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@ why always we Good point - we tried getting tenants to take out their own credit referencing for a while with one of the major reference providers in exactly the way you suggest in an effort to reduce their costs and our administration costs/burden. What a fiasco! We spent more time chasing applicants - thus more cost to us - than we did when we did it for them. They would select the cheapest option when told they had to take the full reference to be accepted; they wouldn't complete the forms properly; they would try to change the results, it was just a nightmare. Trying to get a uniform reasonable fee agreed by all agents is next to impossible for the reasons you give; equally it won't work if we have to charge the landlord and he ultimately adds it to the rent unless all landlords increase rents to the same amount. There is no simple answer to the problem and anyone who thinks it is simple is barking mad and should work for shelter
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Posted Date: Monday 10th September 2012
well done dave, another healthy debate hijacked by your rantings
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well done dave, another healthy debate hijacked by your rantings
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Posted Date: Monday 10th September 2012
sifting out the valid points is quite simple as they are very few and very far between; its his steadfastness in believing his opinion alone amongst all others, inc financial experts, housing experts, the industry, the government, bank of england etc etc is the only correct view that is so irritating. The truth is, and what dave simply chooses to ignore or may be simply doesn't understand, is that the social housing system we have in the UK is in adequate and already bursting at the seams. Dave wants his cake and to be able to eat it too; the eradication of btl landlords just so his kids can buy a house when in fact if the private rental sector is destroyed the social sector would also implode and the governement would need to take emergency steps to provide housing. That could mean forcing landlords with empty properties to rent them to the local authorities; its more likely his kids will be council tenants than homeowners
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sifting out the valid points is quite simple as they are very few and very far between; its his steadfastness in believing his opinion alone amongst all others, inc financial experts, housing experts, the industry, the government, bank of england etc etc is the only correct view that is so irritating. The truth is, and what dave simply chooses to ignore or may be simply doesn't understand, is that the social housing system we have in the UK is in adequate and already bursting at the seams. Dave wants his cake and to be able to eat it too; the eradication of btl landlords just so his kids can buy a house when in fact if the private rental sector is destroyed the social sector would also implode and the governement would need to take emergency steps to provide housing. That could mean forcing landlords with empty properties to rent them to the local authorities; its more likely his kids will be council tenants than homeowners
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Posted Date: Tuesday 11th September 2012
exactly dave, another thread spoilt. Did you even read the headline?? this was about shelter slamming agent fees after their success in scotland - you chip in with your normal boring diatribe about how the btl market is dead (it isn't) how it will all turn out like Japan (it hasn't) and how your kids will save the world economy by buying a btl portfolio house on the cheap. Its boring, you're boring. change the record.
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exactly dave, another thread spoilt. Did you even read the headline?? this was about shelter slamming agent fees after their success in scotland - you chip in with your normal boring diatribe about how the btl market is dead (it isn't) how it will all turn out like Japan (it hasn't) and how your kids will save the world economy by buying a btl portfolio house on the cheap. Its boring, you're boring. change the record.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 11th September 2012
@ dave "its the insecurity of private rented that is the problem...ask any tenant...its not a solution to the council houses we sold off,because they offered security as for the feed...well everyone knows both landlords and tenants are being charged way ott fees and forced to pay them 'cos there is no alternative " I've asked 'any tenant' as you suggest. I've asked the first 20 tenants into the office this morning whether lack of security of tenure was a big issue for them. 5 didn't know what I meant so I explained it to them. Of the 20, only 1 tenant had a concern because he was looking to rent for 2-3 years and didn't really want to move in that time. Fortunately he has one of those horrid btl landlords who wants long term tenants so it won't be a problem. Then I asked them if they thought agents fees were 'ott'. 14 of them hadn't really considered it and just thought of it as a fee to pay for a service. On reflection 3 thought the fees were higher than they expected them but not so much that they would complain. Then I looked at all of the let only landlords we have on the books, over 70 of them; they seem to have found an alternative to paying us fees; do it all themselves - the same as people who repair their own cars, decorate their own homes, make their own bread, grow their own veg, make their own clothes. landlords and tenants use agents because they choose to, not because there is no alternative; they simply don't want to put the effort in to use the other alternative.
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@ dave "its the insecurity of private rented that is the problem...ask any tenant...its not a solution to the council houses we sold off,because they offered security as for the feed...well everyone knows both landlords and tenants are being charged way ott fees and forced to pay them 'cos there is no alternative " I've asked 'any tenant' as you suggest. I've asked the first 20 tenants into the office this morning whether lack of security of tenure was a big issue for them. 5 didn't know what I meant so I explained it to them. Of the 20, only 1 tenant had a concern because he was looking to rent for 2-3 years and didn't really want to move in that time. Fortunately he has one of those horrid btl landlords who wants long term tenants so it won't be a problem. Then I asked them if they thought agents fees were 'ott'. 14 of them hadn't really considered it and just thought of it as a fee to pay for a service. On reflection 3 thought the fees were higher than they expected them but not so much that they would complain. Then I looked at all of the let only landlords we have on the books, over 70 of them; they seem to have found an alternative to paying us fees; do it all themselves - the same as people who repair their own cars, decorate their own homes, make their own bread, grow their own veg, make their own clothes. landlords and tenants use agents because they choose to, not because there is no alternative; they simply don't want to put the effort in to use the other alternative.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 12th September 2012
davidsp wins todays award for the most sweeping generalisation I'm going to stop coming on here, other than a few enlightened people who genuinely care about what happens in the industry, most of the posts are uninformed drivel or based on hearsay and sensationalist jounalism
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davidsp wins todays award for the most sweeping generalisation I'm going to stop coming on here, other than a few enlightened people who genuinely care about what happens in the industry, most of the posts are uninformed drivel or based on hearsay and sensationalist jounalism
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Posted Date: Tuesday 18th September 2012
sorry to veer off topic slightly but IO's comment about the TDP scheme operators extolling the virtues of independent inventory providers is slightly misleading imho. I'm sure its not meant that way. The TDS certainly don't have an axe to grind against landlord or agent inventories as long as they are accurate and laid out clearly; they say as much in their Guide to Inventories, check ins, check outs and Schedules of Condition leaflet. Very few 'qualified' independent clerks that I've seen provide accurate and well laid out inventories, probably because they don't have any vested interest in getting it right, they are having to do it to a tight schedule because they have a set price so cutting corners is common, and they won't be the one that has to argue it with the tenant or landlord when it proves deficient. So to imply that the TDP operators may prefer independent inventories isn't strictly fair, they don't. We use a software package to produce our inventories and haven't lost a claim at TDS yet; they aren't biased towards the landlord (that would be an automatic fail) , they are fair, well written and clearly laid out, and supported by linked photographs in line with what the TDS and the other schemes outline as a model inventory.
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sorry to veer off topic slightly but IO's comment about the TDP scheme operators extolling the virtues of independent inventory providers is slightly misleading imho. I'm sure its not meant that way. The TDS certainly don't have an axe to grind against landlord or agent inventories as long as they are accurate and laid out clearly; they say as much in their Guide to Inventories, check ins, check outs and Schedules of Condition leaflet. Very few 'qualified' independent clerks that I've seen provide accurate and well laid out inventories, probably because they don't have any vested interest in getting it right, they are having to do it to a tight schedule because they have a set price so cutting corners is common, and they won't be the one that has to argue it with the tenant or landlord when it proves deficient. So to imply that the TDP operators may prefer independent inventories isn't strictly fair, they don't. We use a software package to produce our inventories and haven't lost a claim at TDS yet; they aren't biased towards the landlord (that would be an automatic fail) , they are fair, well written and clearly laid out, and supported by linked photographs in line with what the TDS and the other schemes outline as a model inventory.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 18th September 2012
In all honesty I'd give credibility to the inventory that most closely reflected the condition of the property and accurately lists the number, placement and condition of the fitments and furnishings regardless of who prepared it. That seems to be what the adjudicators do.
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In all honesty I'd give credibility to the inventory that most closely reflected the condition of the property and accurately lists the number, placement and condition of the fitments and furnishings regardless of who prepared it. That seems to be what the adjudicators do.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 19th September 2012
@ hmmm "if there is a dispute later down the line any judge/dispute service, will see this is as bias and throw it straight out" Really? I'll let the TDS, DPS and local County Court know immediately, they've obviously been getting it wrong for the last 4-5 years. {rolls eyes}
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@ hmmm "if there is a dispute later down the line any judge/dispute service, will see this is as bias and throw it straight out" Really? I'll let the TDS, DPS and local County Court know immediately, they've obviously been getting it wrong for the last 4-5 years. {rolls eyes}
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Posted Date: Thursday 20th September 2012
@ hmm "My point is, to anyone thinking of doing their own inventory - dont. It counts for nothing in a dispute/in court" You're talking absolute rubbish. Show us evidence of one Court or TDP dispute where the inventory has been disallowed just on the basis that the landlord or agent has provided it. Let me guess, you're an inventory provider, right? And who pays the inventory provider? the landlord. Which gives you a duty of care to that landlord, which in turn will add a bias to your work.
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@ hmm "My point is, to anyone thinking of doing their own inventory - dont. It counts for nothing in a dispute/in court" You're talking absolute rubbish. Show us evidence of one Court or TDP dispute where the inventory has been disallowed just on the basis that the landlord or agent has provided it. Let me guess, you're an inventory provider, right? And who pays the inventory provider? the landlord. Which gives you a duty of care to that landlord, which in turn will add a bias to your work.
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Posted Date: Friday 21st September 2012
we're still waiting to see your proof to back up your claim that the tdp's and the courts will throw out a landlord/agents inventory.
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we're still waiting to see your proof to back up your claim that the tdp's and the courts will throw out a landlord/agents inventory.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 25th September 2012
A typically ill thought out press release from Shelter sending out mixed messages across the board. They claim that Landlords giving tenant two months notice is worrying to tenants, but they would like to give the tenant the option of giving two months notice in their Stable Rental Contract? why can't they see that that the same ability to give notice is worrying to landlords - most of them still have a mortgage to pay if the property is empty. And if Shelter thinks getting possession can be 'easily' done then they are more deluded than I thought. They need to look at the history of the PRS in the UK, from back before the first world war to present, to see what government interference/legislation does for the housing stock and investors.
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A typically ill thought out press release from Shelter sending out mixed messages across the board. They claim that Landlords giving tenant two months notice is worrying to tenants, but they would like to give the tenant the option of giving two months notice in their Stable Rental Contract? why can't they see that that the same ability to give notice is worrying to landlords - most of them still have a mortgage to pay if the property is empty. And if Shelter thinks getting possession can be 'easily' done then they are more deluded than I thought. They need to look at the history of the PRS in the UK, from back before the first world war to present, to see what government interference/legislation does for the housing stock and investors.
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Posted Date: Thursday 27th September 2012
actually it was about this, dave Shelter calls for five-year renting contracts The hint is in the headline at the top of the page, but typically you tried to divert it from that topic to your normal "we're all doomed like japan" in the second post!! Try to stay on topic, there's a good chap
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actually it was about this, dave Shelter calls for five-year renting contracts The hint is in the headline at the top of the page, but typically you tried to divert it from that topic to your normal "we're all doomed like japan" in the second post!! Try to stay on topic, there's a good chap
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Posted Date: Thursday 27th September 2012
hahaha, thats so cruel - like tempting a starving dog inside with a sausage then kicking it back out into the rain hungry. I don't think dave will accept it based on the simple mathematics of there not being enough houses to meet supply in his 'meltdown', that won't fit in with his view of the future at all, bless him
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hahaha, thats so cruel - like tempting a starving dog inside with a sausage then kicking it back out into the rain hungry. I don't think dave will accept it based on the simple mathematics of there not being enough houses to meet supply in his 'meltdown', that won't fit in with his view of the future at all, bless him
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Posted Date: Friday 28th September 2012
there are 1 million empty properties guys and girls in the uk Really? where do you get those figures from? According to latest statistics there are only around 350,000 long term empty properties, thats more than 6 months empty, in the UK and fewer than 80% of those are in England. A lot of them will belong to local authorities and housing associations.
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there are 1 million empty properties guys and girls in the uk Really? where do you get those figures from? According to latest statistics there are only around 350,000 long term empty properties, thats more than 6 months empty, in the UK and fewer than 80% of those are in England. A lot of them will belong to local authorities and housing associations.
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Posted Date: Friday 28th September 2012
Quite frankly a service like that would be a God send to most agents if used properly - we have two situations at the moment where we have serious leaks coming into two properties we manage from the apartments above - the managing agents of the block can't, or won't, contact the owners so we'll use these people to find them.
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Quite frankly a service like that would be a God send to most agents if used properly - we have two situations at the moment where we have serious leaks coming into two properties we manage from the apartments above - the managing agents of the block can't, or won't, contact the owners so we'll use these people to find them.
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Posted Date: Friday 28th September 2012
what the Empty Homes report actually says is 930,000 'reported' empty but - as I posted earlier - only 350,000 long term empty, the figures generally accepted by the industry for a true representative figure for analysis. The whole report includes anything the council tax offices see as empty on the day of the report, that includes property that was occupied the day before and is due to be reoccupied the day after but just happens to be empty on the day. Hardly a reliable figure for the purposes you're trying to use it for. Are you sure you didn't have a hand in Shelter's statistical analysis, dave? lol
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what the Empty Homes report actually says is 930,000 'reported' empty but - as I posted earlier - only 350,000 long term empty, the figures generally accepted by the industry for a true representative figure for analysis. The whole report includes anything the council tax offices see as empty on the day of the report, that includes property that was occupied the day before and is due to be reoccupied the day after but just happens to be empty on the day. Hardly a reliable figure for the purposes you're trying to use it for. Are you sure you didn't have a hand in Shelter's statistical analysis, dave? lol
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Posted Date: Friday 28th September 2012
The report is here btw http://www.emptyhomes.com/statistics-2/
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The report is here btw http://www.emptyhomes.com/statistics-2/
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Posted Date: Tuesday 2nd October 2012
Oh my God, how did we miss this, it was staring us in the face all along. Lets evict all tenants today and rebuild the country in a week.
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Oh my God, how did we miss this, it was staring us in the face all along. Lets evict all tenants today and rebuild the country in a week.
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Posted Date: Thursday 4th October 2012
‘industry competitive protection fees’ ? They'd need to be paying me to ever use their services again. We spent longer trying to get them to release funds after a dispute than we ever did on the disputes themselves. This may be the only way they will survive
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‘industry competitive protection fees’ ? They'd need to be paying me to ever use their services again. We spent longer trying to get them to release funds after a dispute than we ever did on the disputes themselves. This may be the only way they will survive
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Posted Date: Thursday 4th October 2012
"Despite what the report says of course most landlords would be against this. This is because most of them are dodging some sort of mandatory payment such as tax or the like. " And where is your evidence of this grand scale fraud? Most landlords will be against it because it offers them nothing in return; what checks are Newham proposing to carry out on each property and landlord? how will they spend the money raised to rid the industry of rogue landlords and agents? indeed, will they even spend the money raised ridding the area of rogue landlord and agents? until they answer those questions and others no landlord is going to be for it. "I feel however the local authorities time would be better suited regulating the letting agents in their borough!" Yes it would, but they could do that now couldn't they? its called Trading Standards. Licensing every landlord isn't going to change that. What they are proposing is no better than an agent who charges £500 for fees but doesn't want to confirm details of what its going to be used for.
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"Despite what the report says of course most landlords would be against this. This is because most of them are dodging some sort of mandatory payment such as tax or the like. " And where is your evidence of this grand scale fraud? Most landlords will be against it because it offers them nothing in return; what checks are Newham proposing to carry out on each property and landlord? how will they spend the money raised to rid the industry of rogue landlords and agents? indeed, will they even spend the money raised ridding the area of rogue landlord and agents? until they answer those questions and others no landlord is going to be for it. "I feel however the local authorities time would be better suited regulating the letting agents in their borough!" Yes it would, but they could do that now couldn't they? its called Trading Standards. Licensing every landlord isn't going to change that. What they are proposing is no better than an agent who charges £500 for fees but doesn't want to confirm details of what its going to be used for.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 9th October 2012
Why do these people always try to dirty their own industry? Nicholas Cooper said "that visitors to the ARLA website had to scroll some way down before finding anything about CMP, and that it was nowhere to be found on the RICS website" .How about this Nicholas http://www.rics.org/Global/Downloads/rics_cmps_firms_guide.pdf or this http://www.rics.org/Global/Downloads/rics_cmps_clients_guide.pdf A simple use of the search facility on each website provides the information in seconds. Nicholas said “If we struggle to find it, then what hope does a landlord or tenant have?” Hopefully they are a little more computer literate than perhaps you are! Your own companies website isn't exactly brimming over with CMP information is it? If you are going to sit in the big chair at least have the decency to stop sniping at the other bodies without getting your facts correct first.
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Why do these people always try to dirty their own industry? Nicholas Cooper said "that visitors to the ARLA website had to scroll some way down before finding anything about CMP, and that it was nowhere to be found on the RICS website" .How about this Nicholas http://www.rics.org/Global/Downloads/rics_cmps_firms_guide.pdf or this http://www.rics.org/Global/Downloads/rics_cmps_clients_guide.pdf A simple use of the search facility on each website provides the information in seconds. Nicholas said “If we struggle to find it, then what hope does a landlord or tenant have?” Hopefully they are a little more computer literate than perhaps you are! Your own companies website isn't exactly brimming over with CMP information is it? If you are going to sit in the big chair at least have the decency to stop sniping at the other bodies without getting your facts correct first.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 9th October 2012
So why didn't they publish the names of the agents who did answer the questions? surely that would have shown the general public that there are agents out there who are open and genuine and...oh, I see why they didn't want to publish now.
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So why didn't they publish the names of the agents who did answer the questions? surely that would have shown the general public that there are agents out there who are open and genuine and...oh, I see why they didn't want to publish now.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 9th October 2012
31 landlords prosecuted within in a year. Didn't I read on here last week that there are 35,000 private lets in Newham? Less than .01% Either they have the best landlords in the country operating in the borough or someone is not taking their job too seriously.
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31 landlords prosecuted within in a year. Didn't I read on here last week that there are 35,000 private lets in Newham? Less than .01% Either they have the best landlords in the country operating in the borough or someone is not taking their job too seriously.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 9th October 2012
Does no-one ever read the headline story first before pecking away at the keyboard? The story was concerned specifically with CMP, not lettings, not deposits but CMP. Mr Cooper claimed there was no information at all on the RICS website about their CMP and that ARLA's was hard to find @ Dave Evans - I never suggested it was, what i pointed out was that there is information about the RICS CMP, and ARLA's (although their's is a bit scant), readily available to those who look for it. @ Doh - Doh indeed; it wasn't a hyperlink, it was a manual link - try cut and paste @ ARLA agent - what do you think you should search for if you were looking for information about that companies CMP? cheese sandwiches perhaps? holidays in Tenerife? Try searching 'Client Money protection' @ Hellie - what do you want? a single webpage containing every bit of information relating to that company? it IS readily available if you use the sites search facilities.
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Does no-one ever read the headline story first before pecking away at the keyboard? The story was concerned specifically with CMP, not lettings, not deposits but CMP. Mr Cooper claimed there was no information at all on the RICS website about their CMP and that ARLA's was hard to find @ Dave Evans - I never suggested it was, what i pointed out was that there is information about the RICS CMP, and ARLA's (although their's is a bit scant), readily available to those who look for it. @ Doh - Doh indeed; it wasn't a hyperlink, it was a manual link - try cut and paste @ ARLA agent - what do you think you should search for if you were looking for information about that companies CMP? cheese sandwiches perhaps? holidays in Tenerife? Try searching 'Client Money protection' @ Hellie - what do you want? a single webpage containing every bit of information relating to that company? it IS readily available if you use the sites search facilities.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 9th October 2012
too much mystery and too many secrets!! ROFLAO I can just see LAT next week: Shock, horror - Lettings agents are all revealed as Freemasons!!
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too much mystery and too many secrets!! ROFLAO I can just see LAT next week: Shock, horror - Lettings agents are all revealed as Freemasons!!
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Posted Date: Thursday 11th October 2012
I agree with Chris Bramham's response entriely and would have done exactly the same; mob rule should never be the first avenue to try.
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I agree with Chris Bramham's response entriely and would have done exactly the same; mob rule should never be the first avenue to try.
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Posted Date: Thursday 11th October 2012
These people would be well advised to study the history of the PRS in this country, to see the historical effects of government interference, before they start spouting the standard "its ours, we're entitled to it because we were born" mantra. Is anyone really shocked or surprised that lots of MP's (from all parties) are extremely wealthy?? I read a thesis years ago on social finance management, or how we all handle our financial affairs. It explained how, If all the money in the country was pooled and shared out equally to everyone of working age, within 10 years the majority of the money would be back in the original hands, because the poor who did work would now stop working, while the former rich would work harder to get it back.
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These people would be well advised to study the history of the PRS in this country, to see the historical effects of government interference, before they start spouting the standard "its ours, we're entitled to it because we were born" mantra. Is anyone really shocked or surprised that lots of MP's (from all parties) are extremely wealthy?? I read a thesis years ago on social finance management, or how we all handle our financial affairs. It explained how, If all the money in the country was pooled and shared out equally to everyone of working age, within 10 years the majority of the money would be back in the original hands, because the poor who did work would now stop working, while the former rich would work harder to get it back.
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Posted Date: Thursday 11th October 2012
"as prices fall 'renters'(who hate renting btw) will buy rather than rent as banks will lend 90-100% mortgages " hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah breath hahahahahahahahahahahaha Banks lending 100% on a falling asset? in your very odd dreams dave, in your dreams
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"as prices fall 'renters'(who hate renting btw) will buy rather than rent as banks will lend 90-100% mortgages " hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah breath hahahahahahahahahahahaha Banks lending 100% on a falling asset? in your very odd dreams dave, in your dreams
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Posted Date: Friday 12th October 2012
Thats the crux of your problem dave; you think the rest of us don't understand the financial world or how it works. I don't believe for one minute that interest rates will stay low; I'm only surprised they haven't gone up before now. What I don't believe in is your view that if interest rates go up the whole market will implode and allow first time buyers to jump into home ownership. I also remember estate agency being very busy when interest rates were up in double figures - that when a lot of investors were first getting into BTL. The banks made an error in over lending with low security; they won't be quick to make that mistake again so you thinking they will relax deposit requirements anytime soon is a little naive in my opinion. Coupled with the previous governments appalling financial mismanagement, the banking crisis caused devastation to the economy requiring hard decisions to reverse it; a handful of people wittering about how they can't afford to buy a house isn't going to change the route we all need to tread for the foreseeable future.
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Thats the crux of your problem dave; you think the rest of us don't understand the financial world or how it works. I don't believe for one minute that interest rates will stay low; I'm only surprised they haven't gone up before now. What I don't believe in is your view that if interest rates go up the whole market will implode and allow first time buyers to jump into home ownership. I also remember estate agency being very busy when interest rates were up in double figures - that when a lot of investors were first getting into BTL. The banks made an error in over lending with low security; they won't be quick to make that mistake again so you thinking they will relax deposit requirements anytime soon is a little naive in my opinion. Coupled with the previous governments appalling financial mismanagement, the banking crisis caused devastation to the economy requiring hard decisions to reverse it; a handful of people wittering about how they can't afford to buy a house isn't going to change the route we all need to tread for the foreseeable future.
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Posted Date: Friday 12th October 2012
rantnrave said "Shelter is another of life's essentials that is becoming further and further out of reach for increasing numbers of this country's young people. None of the political parties even have this issue on their radar (older property owners vote in greater numbers). It has the potential to get much uglier" Thats because its a non story in terms of the current economic problems the whole country is facing; this isn't a nationwide crisis, this is a handful of activists wanting to hate against someone for something they want now but can't have
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rantnrave said "Shelter is another of life's essentials that is becoming further and further out of reach for increasing numbers of this country's young people. None of the political parties even have this issue on their radar (older property owners vote in greater numbers). It has the potential to get much uglier" Thats because its a non story in terms of the current economic problems the whole country is facing; this isn't a nationwide crisis, this is a handful of activists wanting to hate against someone for something they want now but can't have
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Posted Date: Tuesday 16th October 2012
I've been in this industry for almost 25 years - admin fees HAVE always been charged by the majority of agents to make the maths work when operating a letting agency. Commission rates were also much higher then; as they have been squeezed by competition so the agent relys more on their fee structure. Simplistic views like daves just don't work in the real world; if we dropped fees and upped commission rates we would be out of business in 12 months, with the loss of a lot of jobs by the way, as landlords leave to go to the cut price agents with their cut price service; the industry would eventually go into decline.
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I've been in this industry for almost 25 years - admin fees HAVE always been charged by the majority of agents to make the maths work when operating a letting agency. Commission rates were also much higher then; as they have been squeezed by competition so the agent relys more on their fee structure. Simplistic views like daves just don't work in the real world; if we dropped fees and upped commission rates we would be out of business in 12 months, with the loss of a lot of jobs by the way, as landlords leave to go to the cut price agents with their cut price service; the industry would eventually go into decline.
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Posted Date: Thursday 18th October 2012
We've had loads of tenants with dogs, most of which didn't moult, bark, smell, scratch, chew or defecate according to the owners yet oddly a) we still had issues with most of them at the end, and b) it appears lots of dog owners don't know their pets as well as the thought. Yes, I am a dog lover before i get pelted with stones, and no, i wouldn't put a dog into a clients property unless they 100% knew the risks.
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We've had loads of tenants with dogs, most of which didn't moult, bark, smell, scratch, chew or defecate according to the owners yet oddly a) we still had issues with most of them at the end, and b) it appears lots of dog owners don't know their pets as well as the thought. Yes, I am a dog lover before i get pelted with stones, and no, i wouldn't put a dog into a clients property unless they 100% knew the risks.
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Posted Date: Friday 19th October 2012
If landlords and tenants who have been wronged won't report it to the TSO or OFT now, then what makes anyone think they would do it if agents and landlords were regulated by central government who, in turn, would rely on exactly the same agencies to take action? Sounds to me like its the TSO and OFT who need regulating, or a boot up the backside as I like to call it.
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If landlords and tenants who have been wronged won't report it to the TSO or OFT now, then what makes anyone think they would do it if agents and landlords were regulated by central government who, in turn, would rely on exactly the same agencies to take action? Sounds to me like its the TSO and OFT who need regulating, or a boot up the backside as I like to call it.
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Posted Date: Sunday 21st October 2012
Perhaps if all pet owners who wanted to rent were regulated........ that seems to be the current answer to everything else let related. Or how about the Dogs Trust offering a warranty scheme to help protect the landlords from irresponsible dog owners who let their dogs foul carpets, dig up gardens and lawns, chew the fittings etc. No, i don't think they will either
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Perhaps if all pet owners who wanted to rent were regulated........ that seems to be the current answer to everything else let related. Or how about the Dogs Trust offering a warranty scheme to help protect the landlords from irresponsible dog owners who let their dogs foul carpets, dig up gardens and lawns, chew the fittings etc. No, i don't think they will either
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Posted Date: Tuesday 23rd October 2012
It will be interesting to see what solutions they come up with to deal with rogue agents; clearly the present system of dealing with rogue traders isn't being applied too closely.
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It will be interesting to see what solutions they come up with to deal with rogue agents; clearly the present system of dealing with rogue traders isn't being applied too closely.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 23rd October 2012
I agree, poorly thought out strategy in regards to fees. Blindly accepting statistics, especially Government statistics, to curry favour with Shelter and the like is not not a trait I would look for in any sort of leadership position either.
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I agree, poorly thought out strategy in regards to fees. Blindly accepting statistics, especially Government statistics, to curry favour with Shelter and the like is not not a trait I would look for in any sort of leadership position either.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 24th October 2012
@David Worthington I agree entirely, just a cursory look back at the history of the PRS in this country reveals the effects of rent control; a decline in investment in residential accommodation. This is all fine and dandy when there is an alternative available to people who have to rent like local authority housing but currently there isn't. If investors see their investments failing they will start to pull out of the market. Before the first world war 90% of housing stock was privately rented; the government of the time moved to apply control and it steadily declined to the point in the late 80's where it was only 7% of the market. This was assisted by more local authority housing being available at the time and the 'good times' following the second world war when owner occupation was made easier. Giving tenants more security of tenure and lowering or capping rents will have the same effect imho. If they do go ahead then it needs to be tempered with legislation to make it easier to be rid of non paying and troublesome tenants.
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@David Worthington I agree entirely, just a cursory look back at the history of the PRS in this country reveals the effects of rent control; a decline in investment in residential accommodation. This is all fine and dandy when there is an alternative available to people who have to rent like local authority housing but currently there isn't. If investors see their investments failing they will start to pull out of the market. Before the first world war 90% of housing stock was privately rented; the government of the time moved to apply control and it steadily declined to the point in the late 80's where it was only 7% of the market. This was assisted by more local authority housing being available at the time and the 'good times' following the second world war when owner occupation was made easier. Giving tenants more security of tenure and lowering or capping rents will have the same effect imho. If they do go ahead then it needs to be tempered with legislation to make it easier to be rid of non paying and troublesome tenants.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 24th October 2012
Am I missing something here? Have ARLA actually said they want the job or are people just assuming that, because Jane Ingram made a comment supporting the aims of the inquiry, it is a given that they will get it.
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Am I missing something here? Have ARLA actually said they want the job or are people just assuming that, because Jane Ingram made a comment supporting the aims of the inquiry, it is a given that they will get it.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 24th October 2012
@ Caroline Kenny Coming on here and regurgitating your blog response to the same question like a politician is hardly going to get you any fans Caroline - we can all read you know. What made YOU think that the statistics you used were accurate? surely not just based on the fact they came from a government department? if those statistics are not for the current rental market, why do YOU think it is relevant to use them now in a different market to that which we had say 2 or 5 years ago? Did you even ask what definitions were given to the question about unfair fees? how was an unfair fee defined? what scales if any were applied to decide whether the fee was unfair or not? You claim to be representing people in the industry, but you must also see that blindly using statistics in this way, the same way as Shelter have done recently, is headline grabbing and harmful to your members as well as the industry itself; the general public just see you referring to 11 million people saying they've been ripped off by letting agents, and because its from government statistics if must be true! Most tenants think letting agents fees are unfair, that doesn't mean they actually are. We've had tenants complain they we 'ripped them off' for their deposit when we unreasonably deducted £200 to replace a new carpet they had ruined with multiple cigarettes burns or the one where they accused us of stealing their deposit when in fact it went towards replacing the 6 month old worktops in the kitchen that they had destroyed by continually putting hot pans straight onto the tops. Both tenants would say they had been treated unfairly if asked. We need strong, decisive trade organisation leaders in this industry who are prepared to stand up for the industry, defend it when needed, help stamp out the few bad apples where required, and drive the industry forward without giving the general public the impression that we are all cutthroats and thieves. I really don't meant to give you a hard time but the rank and file of this industry that do a good job are getting fed up with being tarred with the same stick as the badguys I wonder how the statistics would look if we took a poll of your members to see how many thought your new fee structure was unfair? its not looking good so far.
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@ Caroline Kenny Coming on here and regurgitating your blog response to the same question like a politician is hardly going to get you any fans Caroline - we can all read you know. What made YOU think that the statistics you used were accurate? surely not just based on the fact they came from a government department? if those statistics are not for the current rental market, why do YOU think it is relevant to use them now in a different market to that which we had say 2 or 5 years ago? Did you even ask what definitions were given to the question about unfair fees? how was an unfair fee defined? what scales if any were applied to decide whether the fee was unfair or not? You claim to be representing people in the industry, but you must also see that blindly using statistics in this way, the same way as Shelter have done recently, is headline grabbing and harmful to your members as well as the industry itself; the general public just see you referring to 11 million people saying they've been ripped off by letting agents, and because its from government statistics if must be true! Most tenants think letting agents fees are unfair, that doesn't mean they actually are. We've had tenants complain they we 'ripped them off' for their deposit when we unreasonably deducted £200 to replace a new carpet they had ruined with multiple cigarettes burns or the one where they accused us of stealing their deposit when in fact it went towards replacing the 6 month old worktops in the kitchen that they had destroyed by continually putting hot pans straight onto the tops. Both tenants would say they had been treated unfairly if asked. We need strong, decisive trade organisation leaders in this industry who are prepared to stand up for the industry, defend it when needed, help stamp out the few bad apples where required, and drive the industry forward without giving the general public the impression that we are all cutthroats and thieves. I really don't meant to give you a hard time but the rank and file of this industry that do a good job are getting fed up with being tarred with the same stick as the badguys I wonder how the statistics would look if we took a poll of your members to see how many thought your new fee structure was unfair? its not looking good so far.
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Posted Date: Thursday 25th October 2012
"Beside all that, does receiving benefits mean everyone is less trustworthy or less able to manage money than someone with a job? " In a lot of cases, yes it does mean exactly that. When I took benefit tenants I was fighting a daily battle to get their rent out of some of them. With less money to go around, they would always plump for the easy option of holding their rent back whenever they had a 'crisis'; like needing a new flat screen TV, a holiday, new trainers for the kids, christmas etc. In fact whenever they needed something the first thing to get cancelled was the rent. Kids need to learn about Maslow's Hierarchy in school, that might help save future generations from the same mistakes.
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"Beside all that, does receiving benefits mean everyone is less trustworthy or less able to manage money than someone with a job? " In a lot of cases, yes it does mean exactly that. When I took benefit tenants I was fighting a daily battle to get their rent out of some of them. With less money to go around, they would always plump for the easy option of holding their rent back whenever they had a 'crisis'; like needing a new flat screen TV, a holiday, new trainers for the kids, christmas etc. In fact whenever they needed something the first thing to get cancelled was the rent. Kids need to learn about Maslow's Hierarchy in school, that might help save future generations from the same mistakes.
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Posted Date: Thursday 25th October 2012
LHA was based on giving tenants dignity and a sense of financial responsibility - look where that ended up. I'm sorry Robert but I'm of the old school that believes respect needs to be earned or at the very least a two way street.
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LHA was based on giving tenants dignity and a sense of financial responsibility - look where that ended up. I'm sorry Robert but I'm of the old school that believes respect needs to be earned or at the very least a two way street.
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Posted Date: Monday 29th October 2012
@ @caroline perhaps you should have read this first http://www.rics.org/uk/regulation/regulation-uk/protecting-clients-money/ It clearly includes tenants deposits
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@ @caroline perhaps you should have read this first http://www.rics.org/uk/regulation/regulation-uk/protecting-clients-money/ It clearly includes tenants deposits
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Posted Date: Friday 9th November 2012
I'm convinced that half the people who post on this site only read the first 2-3 lines of a story before furiously attacking the keyboard. At no point does Ian Potter say that if you are not an ARLA agent then you must be unscrupulous. He simply warns tenants to be aware of who they are dealing with, and check that if someone is displaying a logo to make sure it is genuine or do actually offer some protection; we have a local landlord who used to advertise themselves as a member of the Guild of Master Craftsmen!!!. He also suggests that tenants are advised to use agents who belong to a professional organisation - note he didn't say ARLA - and who have CMP and offer redress schemes. I was unregulated for many years and never had CMP or a redress scheme, but 5 years ago I started having more and more landlords and tenants asking about it so I had to change, it doesn't mean I was unscrupulous it just meant I changed with the times and the needs of the people I make my living from. For all the unregulated agents out there I would ask just one question; if the unthinkable happens and you go out of business with debts, who will settle the money owed to your landlords and/or tenants? It can happen you know, its not just crooked agents who go out of business. What Ian has said is no different to the holiday industry advising using an ABTA agent, and no one sensible would ignore that advise.
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I'm convinced that half the people who post on this site only read the first 2-3 lines of a story before furiously attacking the keyboard. At no point does Ian Potter say that if you are not an ARLA agent then you must be unscrupulous. He simply warns tenants to be aware of who they are dealing with, and check that if someone is displaying a logo to make sure it is genuine or do actually offer some protection; we have a local landlord who used to advertise themselves as a member of the Guild of Master Craftsmen!!!. He also suggests that tenants are advised to use agents who belong to a professional organisation - note he didn't say ARLA - and who have CMP and offer redress schemes. I was unregulated for many years and never had CMP or a redress scheme, but 5 years ago I started having more and more landlords and tenants asking about it so I had to change, it doesn't mean I was unscrupulous it just meant I changed with the times and the needs of the people I make my living from. For all the unregulated agents out there I would ask just one question; if the unthinkable happens and you go out of business with debts, who will settle the money owed to your landlords and/or tenants? It can happen you know, its not just crooked agents who go out of business. What Ian has said is no different to the holiday industry advising using an ABTA agent, and no one sensible would ignore that advise.
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Posted Date: Friday 9th November 2012
Its nothing to do with ethical letting agencies - its a simple, ill thought out business idea with little chance of success. Lets have a count of hands, how many of us have landlords who are willing to accept a substantially lower than market rent - and it would need to be substantially lower to attract the tenants - to help people at the lower end of the rent scale. The churches are the best placed people to operate a scheme like this by speaking to their 'flock' and seeing which landlords amongst them would want to be involved. I wonder how shocked they might be when they get the answer.
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Its nothing to do with ethical letting agencies - its a simple, ill thought out business idea with little chance of success. Lets have a count of hands, how many of us have landlords who are willing to accept a substantially lower than market rent - and it would need to be substantially lower to attract the tenants - to help people at the lower end of the rent scale. The churches are the best placed people to operate a scheme like this by speaking to their 'flock' and seeing which landlords amongst them would want to be involved. I wonder how shocked they might be when they get the answer.
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Posted Date: Friday 9th November 2012
@ unregulated agent Of course it implies dishonesty, that was the point of the headline story wasn't it - to help educate tenants how best to protect themselves?. Good for you that you are honest but if you weren't, and you decided to spend your clients money on a new ferrari and a house in the seychelles, your clients and tenants would get nothing. Another point to remember is that very few people set themselves up as agents with the deliberate intention of being dishonest; most start of as honest but greed or poor management get the better of them and they turn the other way. Of course we occasionally see regulated agents also doing this, its hardly an indursty secret is it? but the point is their clients get covered for any loss. ARLA, NALS, SAFEAGENT or whoever, it doesn't matter which one, it doesn't stop an agent being dishonest but it does protect the client if it happens and that is what is important.
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@ unregulated agent Of course it implies dishonesty, that was the point of the headline story wasn't it - to help educate tenants how best to protect themselves?. Good for you that you are honest but if you weren't, and you decided to spend your clients money on a new ferrari and a house in the seychelles, your clients and tenants would get nothing. Another point to remember is that very few people set themselves up as agents with the deliberate intention of being dishonest; most start of as honest but greed or poor management get the better of them and they turn the other way. Of course we occasionally see regulated agents also doing this, its hardly an indursty secret is it? but the point is their clients get covered for any loss. ARLA, NALS, SAFEAGENT or whoever, it doesn't matter which one, it doesn't stop an agent being dishonest but it does protect the client if it happens and that is what is important.
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Posted Date: Friday 9th November 2012
@ me again 'In reality ARLA are harbouring criminals in the making'. Really? you really want to make a strong accusation like that on a public forum? I'm going to leave it here but I really hope it doesn't come back to bite you on the backside.
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@ me again 'In reality ARLA are harbouring criminals in the making'. Really? you really want to make a strong accusation like that on a public forum? I'm going to leave it here but I really hope it doesn't come back to bite you on the backside.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 13th November 2012
hahahaha, yeah, lots of conclusive evidence in that 1 sided, 3 year old, unsubstantiated complaint.
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hahahaha, yeah, lots of conclusive evidence in that 1 sided, 3 year old, unsubstantiated complaint.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 13th November 2012
Exactly what part of this is 'new'? Its a let only service with the landlord doing the legwork priced at a similar cost to other agencies around the country. I'd be more interested to see how their full management service works on a nationwide basis from a central office in Essex. Are landlords expected to do their own inspections too or will they ask local agents to do it?
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Exactly what part of this is 'new'? Its a let only service with the landlord doing the legwork priced at a similar cost to other agencies around the country. I'd be more interested to see how their full management service works on a nationwide basis from a central office in Essex. Are landlords expected to do their own inspections too or will they ask local agents to do it?
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Posted Date: Thursday 15th November 2012
“In the most serious cases we have the power to revoke an HMO licence and take over the running of the properties ourselves.” Makes you wonder just how bad a landlord has to be BEFORE they step in and take over doesn't it? Clearly they don't think this case is bad enough to warrant action other than a fine.
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“In the most serious cases we have the power to revoke an HMO licence and take over the running of the properties ourselves.” Makes you wonder just how bad a landlord has to be BEFORE they step in and take over doesn't it? Clearly they don't think this case is bad enough to warrant action other than a fine.
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Posted Date: Monday 26th November 2012
@ Frank "What has the Institute of Chartered Surveyors got to do with Lettings? " Uhh, how about lots of their members have letting departments? its not just commercial property.
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@ Frank "What has the Institute of Chartered Surveyors got to do with Lettings? " Uhh, how about lots of their members have letting departments? its not just commercial property.
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Posted Date: Monday 26th November 2012
hahahahaha, quoting allagents as a reliable source for statistics is no better than asking shelter to provide them
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hahahahaha, quoting allagents as a reliable source for statistics is no better than asking shelter to provide them
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Posted Date: Thursday 29th November 2012
Well put James! The level of charges needs to be the defining factor here, not the charges themselves. Most landlords are accidental or on a tight budget. Its simple mathematics to see that if you load the landlord, he in turn will simply load the rent so the tenant ends up paying more in the long run than he would if he paid the fee in the first place. Agents trying to do this piecemeal will simply fall to the wolves as landlords leave for the cheaper deal up the road. I'm sure IO will have some utopian scenario ready where that won't happen but, in reality, it will. Shelter will then call harder for rent controls and, if that happens, investment will drop out of the PRS very quickly if they see their returns shrinking; history has a nasty habit of repeating itself like that.
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Well put James! The level of charges needs to be the defining factor here, not the charges themselves. Most landlords are accidental or on a tight budget. Its simple mathematics to see that if you load the landlord, he in turn will simply load the rent so the tenant ends up paying more in the long run than he would if he paid the fee in the first place. Agents trying to do this piecemeal will simply fall to the wolves as landlords leave for the cheaper deal up the road. I'm sure IO will have some utopian scenario ready where that won't happen but, in reality, it will. Shelter will then call harder for rent controls and, if that happens, investment will drop out of the PRS very quickly if they see their returns shrinking; history has a nasty habit of repeating itself like that.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 4th December 2012
It makes me cry with laughter every time one of these bozo's pops up with their 'new concept' online letting agency. Online you may be but you are NOT a letting agent. You're an advertising medium for let only landlords. Fail already - I searched for a house on Openrent this morning and the first one to come up says it was taken off the market on the 23rd November!! Love to hear your reasons for leaving it on the website. Lets see if you're still in business in a years time at '£20 all in'
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It makes me cry with laughter every time one of these bozo's pops up with their 'new concept' online letting agency. Online you may be but you are NOT a letting agent. You're an advertising medium for let only landlords. Fail already - I searched for a house on Openrent this morning and the first one to come up says it was taken off the market on the 23rd November!! Love to hear your reasons for leaving it on the website. Lets see if you're still in business in a years time at '£20 all in'
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Posted Date: Tuesday 4th December 2012
http://www.openrent.co.uk/property-to-rent/milton-keynes/3-bed-detached-house-on-trubys-garden-mk6/1088 http://www.openrent.co.uk/property-to-rent/london/2-bed-detached-house-on-grove-road-sw19/1425 http://www.openrent.co.uk/property-to-rent/london/room-in-a-shared-house-on-besley-street-sw16/910 There are loads more out of date properties on their website, take the story down LAT, its blatant advertising for a company that can't even keep to their own service promises
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http://www.openrent.co.uk/property-to-rent/milton-keynes/3-bed-detached-house-on-trubys-garden-mk6/1088 http://www.openrent.co.uk/property-to-rent/london/2-bed-detached-house-on-grove-road-sw19/1425 http://www.openrent.co.uk/property-to-rent/london/room-in-a-shared-house-on-besley-street-sw16/910 There are loads more out of date properties on their website, take the story down LAT, its blatant advertising for a company that can't even keep to their own service promises
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Posted Date: Tuesday 4th December 2012
Shelter won't care one little bit if/when rents rise due to fees being outlawed if it comes to it; they'll be too busy celebrating their defeat of the letting agent. Eventually they will start to notice the increase in the number of tenants in financial hardship and will start to bring pressure on the government to bring in rent controls to reduce the increase they have been instrumental in bringing forward. That's when the fun will really start. If the PRS reduces by even 10% because of it, the pressure on local authorities would be catastrophic. If investors see their income being threatened they will do what they always do; pull their money out and find something new.
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Shelter won't care one little bit if/when rents rise due to fees being outlawed if it comes to it; they'll be too busy celebrating their defeat of the letting agent. Eventually they will start to notice the increase in the number of tenants in financial hardship and will start to bring pressure on the government to bring in rent controls to reduce the increase they have been instrumental in bringing forward. That's when the fun will really start. If the PRS reduces by even 10% because of it, the pressure on local authorities would be catastrophic. If investors see their income being threatened they will do what they always do; pull their money out and find something new.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 5th December 2012
Shelter are a charity in name only and have been for some time; they've gone the same way as the unions in the 70's and 80's, they now believe they are a political force rather than a charity helping people who ask for it. They now want to 'help' people whether they want it or not
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Shelter are a charity in name only and have been for some time; they've gone the same way as the unions in the 70's and 80's, they now believe they are a political force rather than a charity helping people who ask for it. They now want to 'help' people whether they want it or not
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Posted Date: Wednesday 5th December 2012
I'm sure I've bored you all with this one before but its probably worth repeating. We had a young well meaning chap open an agency in town a few years back now; I helped him out with advice, set up his accounting and property management systems, trained him on it all etc but the only thing I could't persuade him from what his idea to charge the landlords for the tenants referencing. he had a very low commission rate so thought it would even it out; the half a dozen landlords he had agreed at first until he hit one of them with a new tenant PLUS 8 failed references fees. The landlord quite rightly told him to go away in decidedly more anglo saxon terms. I asked him to show me his Homelet reference history; because he had advertised no credit check costs he had been inundated with every tom, dick and harry tenant who fancied their chances; in a little under a month he had run up a £1500 reference bill and let 3 houses. Back then we were renting around 20 properties per month and our bill was half of that. Adding the cost of referencing onto the rent isn't as easy as it might seem when you have to take into account all the failures. This will end up being the same as car insurance; the good drivers will pay for the bad. The good tenants will pay the price of bad tenants applying for property in the safe knowledge that it won't cost them anything. I know were not unique in having perhaps a dozen applicants a month who pull out because they don't want to pay a fee - even a reasonable one. They won't pull out if they are getting it for free. Shelter will get its way eventually but at what cost to tenants, that's the real question. Like any politically led group, they won't worry about a bit of collateral damage to reach their target.
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I'm sure I've bored you all with this one before but its probably worth repeating. We had a young well meaning chap open an agency in town a few years back now; I helped him out with advice, set up his accounting and property management systems, trained him on it all etc but the only thing I could't persuade him from what his idea to charge the landlords for the tenants referencing. he had a very low commission rate so thought it would even it out; the half a dozen landlords he had agreed at first until he hit one of them with a new tenant PLUS 8 failed references fees. The landlord quite rightly told him to go away in decidedly more anglo saxon terms. I asked him to show me his Homelet reference history; because he had advertised no credit check costs he had been inundated with every tom, dick and harry tenant who fancied their chances; in a little under a month he had run up a £1500 reference bill and let 3 houses. Back then we were renting around 20 properties per month and our bill was half of that. Adding the cost of referencing onto the rent isn't as easy as it might seem when you have to take into account all the failures. This will end up being the same as car insurance; the good drivers will pay for the bad. The good tenants will pay the price of bad tenants applying for property in the safe knowledge that it won't cost them anything. I know were not unique in having perhaps a dozen applicants a month who pull out because they don't want to pay a fee - even a reasonable one. They won't pull out if they are getting it for free. Shelter will get its way eventually but at what cost to tenants, that's the real question. Like any politically led group, they won't worry about a bit of collateral damage to reach their target.
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Posted Date: Thursday 6th December 2012
OI love the way that David Lawrenson has twisted that; that landlords haven't defaulted. Just because they are paying their mortgage, it doesn't follow that the tenant must have paid their rent. Is he deliberately missing the point I wonder?
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OI love the way that David Lawrenson has twisted that; that landlords haven't defaulted. Just because they are paying their mortgage, it doesn't follow that the tenant must have paid their rent. Is he deliberately missing the point I wonder?
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Posted Date: Tuesday 11th December 2012
This is typical of the sort of government blindness that makes people lose confidence in MP's. Its all very well for ministers to ask that tenants learn to handle their finances but they're gambling with the landlords mortgage in a lot of cases.
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This is typical of the sort of government blindness that makes people lose confidence in MP's. Its all very well for ministers to ask that tenants learn to handle their finances but they're gambling with the landlords mortgage in a lot of cases.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 11th December 2012
Our subscription will be cancelled, I can't believe their naivety.
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Our subscription will be cancelled, I can't believe their naivety.
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Posted Date: Thursday 13th December 2012
Who would have thought that areas that have more people would have more demand for accommodation. Coming in next weeks Tales of the Bleeding Obvious; proof that the world IS flat
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Who would have thought that areas that have more people would have more demand for accommodation. Coming in next weeks Tales of the Bleeding Obvious; proof that the world IS flat
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Posted Date: Thursday 13th December 2012
I didn't question the accuracy of the report, more the need for it. Do we really need a report to confirm that areas of low population don't have a high need for accommodation, its pretty obvious to anyone in the industry isn't it.
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I didn't question the accuracy of the report, more the need for it. Do we really need a report to confirm that areas of low population don't have a high need for accommodation, its pretty obvious to anyone in the industry isn't it.
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Posted Date: Friday 14th December 2012
A deterrent? its just not big enough to excite them is the truth. Its only 'little people' who have been hit so no interest from the establishment. I bet if an MP had been one of the people who had lost money they would have been in court by now. We had a local agent go bust last year, we could all see the signs; landlords not being paid, tenants being fobbed off with excuses why their deposit hadn't been returned, contractors not being paid. He claimed to have had only 250 properties under management but we estimated it at twice that just based on data we were given, and over three quarters of a million pounds missing. Have they faced prosecution? not a chance so the est of the conmen around here are thinking "hey, he got away with it" they need stringing up
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A deterrent? its just not big enough to excite them is the truth. Its only 'little people' who have been hit so no interest from the establishment. I bet if an MP had been one of the people who had lost money they would have been in court by now. We had a local agent go bust last year, we could all see the signs; landlords not being paid, tenants being fobbed off with excuses why their deposit hadn't been returned, contractors not being paid. He claimed to have had only 250 properties under management but we estimated it at twice that just based on data we were given, and over three quarters of a million pounds missing. Have they faced prosecution? not a chance so the est of the conmen around here are thinking "hey, he got away with it" they need stringing up
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Posted Date: Tuesday 18th December 2012
On the face of it I think it looks like a good idea, and probably a lot more palatable than full blown legislation from central government to fix the industry. I agree in part that the current consumer protection laws aren't enforced enough but that won't change unless/until local authorities take the problem seriously and get an influx of cash from CG to fight it. A one day course for landlords that gives them the basics of a safe, lawful letting has got to be better than nothing at all and might encourage some to look further into their obligations. I find it hard to believe that anyone would think different.
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On the face of it I think it looks like a good idea, and probably a lot more palatable than full blown legislation from central government to fix the industry. I agree in part that the current consumer protection laws aren't enforced enough but that won't change unless/until local authorities take the problem seriously and get an influx of cash from CG to fight it. A one day course for landlords that gives them the basics of a safe, lawful letting has got to be better than nothing at all and might encourage some to look further into their obligations. I find it hard to believe that anyone would think different.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 18th December 2012
"letting agent and property management fees accounted for slightly more than one fifth of costs, with letting agents collecting 8.9% of the total and property management firms taking 12.6%." How many landlords do you know who would employ an agent AND a property management company on the same property and pay over 21%? A very unsubtle way of trying to boost business DL
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"letting agent and property management fees accounted for slightly more than one fifth of costs, with letting agents collecting 8.9% of the total and property management firms taking 12.6%." How many landlords do you know who would employ an agent AND a property management company on the same property and pay over 21%? A very unsubtle way of trying to boost business DL
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Posted Date: Thursday 20th December 2012
Trying to advise the general public is like nailing jelly to a ceiling; its futile and no one appreciates it. We have transparent fees, have had for years, but does it stop tenants arguing or disputing them? of course not. The amount of the fee, when they are due, why they are due, where does it say they are due, it doesn't matter. Anyone who thinks transparent fees will solve the issue is deluded; you might have a defence if they are transparent and fair but it won't stop tenants or even landlords for that matter complaining. Now, if a group of agents wants to get together to discuss how we might educate the general public into what they should be looking at in terms of a good agent, we might all get somewhere. Will the industry forum spend any of their fees on educating the public? I'd like to see it happen
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Trying to advise the general public is like nailing jelly to a ceiling; its futile and no one appreciates it. We have transparent fees, have had for years, but does it stop tenants arguing or disputing them? of course not. The amount of the fee, when they are due, why they are due, where does it say they are due, it doesn't matter. Anyone who thinks transparent fees will solve the issue is deluded; you might have a defence if they are transparent and fair but it won't stop tenants or even landlords for that matter complaining. Now, if a group of agents wants to get together to discuss how we might educate the general public into what they should be looking at in terms of a good agent, we might all get somewhere. Will the industry forum spend any of their fees on educating the public? I'd like to see it happen
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Posted Date: Thursday 20th December 2012
You can see the level of intelligence behind mob action of this sort - they bring to a standstill a meeting whose sole purpose was to discuss the private rental sector! These are the same sort of people who rampaged across the UK during the poll tax riots and various other riots. Putting their view across in a rational and civilised manner is not in their vocabulary
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You can see the level of intelligence behind mob action of this sort - they bring to a standstill a meeting whose sole purpose was to discuss the private rental sector! These are the same sort of people who rampaged across the UK during the poll tax riots and various other riots. Putting their view across in a rational and civilised manner is not in their vocabulary
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Posted Date: Thursday 20th December 2012
@ The Frank Knight You've missed my point; it doesn't matter to the average tenant if the fees are flagged up or not, or drawn up in their own blood and witnessed by Lucifer himself; the sort of tenant who will complain - and we've all had them - will always find something to argue about and Shelter will always give them a hearing. It all takes up our time for which we are expected to earn less money. If people were educated more about what to expect from being a tenant or landlord, we would all have less problems.
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@ The Frank Knight You've missed my point; it doesn't matter to the average tenant if the fees are flagged up or not, or drawn up in their own blood and witnessed by Lucifer himself; the sort of tenant who will complain - and we've all had them - will always find something to argue about and Shelter will always give them a hearing. It all takes up our time for which we are expected to earn less money. If people were educated more about what to expect from being a tenant or landlord, we would all have less problems.
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Posted Date: Thursday 20th December 2012
Are we the least bit suprised? will it change anything? it certainly won't accept governments ivory towers or its decisions
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Are we the least bit suprised? will it change anything? it certainly won't accept governments ivory towers or its decisions
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Posted Date: Tuesday 8th January 2013
“The proposed licensing scheme would make money out of the majority of good landlords who manage their properties properly, while enabling us to use their money instead of our own to deal with the 0.016% minority who choose not to engage with us, and whose letting and management practices are poor" There, that makes more sense now with a bit of editing
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“The proposed licensing scheme would make money out of the majority of good landlords who manage their properties properly, while enabling us to use their money instead of our own to deal with the 0.016% minority who choose not to engage with us, and whose letting and management practices are poor" There, that makes more sense now with a bit of editing
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Posted Date: Thursday 10th January 2013
I agree with Shelter - as they know already, all of my landlords are idly rich multi millionaires living on super yachts in the carribean and cavorting with supermodels and A list celebs; why only the other day one of them gave me a bundle of old £50 notes he didn't want anymore because his butler had marked them while ironing his wad! At least Boris sees the potential pitfalls in following Shelter's demands
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I agree with Shelter - as they know already, all of my landlords are idly rich multi millionaires living on super yachts in the carribean and cavorting with supermodels and A list celebs; why only the other day one of them gave me a bundle of old £50 notes he didn't want anymore because his butler had marked them while ironing his wad! At least Boris sees the potential pitfalls in following Shelter's demands
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Posted Date: Thursday 10th January 2013
Wales has identified a cash cow, other councils will too especially those with big deficits in their funding. Them making the landlord or agent responsible for the tenants behaviour doesn't automatically give the landlord/agent the power to deal with it or enforce it. I see a clash with the judiciary ahead
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Wales has identified a cash cow, other councils will too especially those with big deficits in their funding. Them making the landlord or agent responsible for the tenants behaviour doesn't automatically give the landlord/agent the power to deal with it or enforce it. I see a clash with the judiciary ahead
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Posted Date: Thursday 10th January 2013
I'm not sure that many existing landlords will be able to take the moral high ground and leave the area Ray, although I agree with your sentiments. If Caroline is correct however, it will stifle further investors if most rental houses were to be let to council tenants. A casual drive around most council estates in the country will put most most people off investing in such areas
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I'm not sure that many existing landlords will be able to take the moral high ground and leave the area Ray, although I agree with your sentiments. If Caroline is correct however, it will stifle further investors if most rental houses were to be let to council tenants. A casual drive around most council estates in the country will put most most people off investing in such areas
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Posted Date: Tuesday 15th January 2013
£2m wasted on a website that never lived upto expectations; methinks someone saw the gravy train pull up and jumped on board. We used it for over a year and had not one response from it. NFoPP are making the same errors that the big corporates make when they come to a new town; they may be known by 99% of the people within the industry but only by 1% of the general public have heard of them; they may be big players in the industry but Joe Public doesn't know that. £2m would have been better spent on a public awareness campaign, at least members may have got some benefit out of it.
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£2m wasted on a website that never lived upto expectations; methinks someone saw the gravy train pull up and jumped on board. We used it for over a year and had not one response from it. NFoPP are making the same errors that the big corporates make when they come to a new town; they may be known by 99% of the people within the industry but only by 1% of the general public have heard of them; they may be big players in the industry but Joe Public doesn't know that. £2m would have been better spent on a public awareness campaign, at least members may have got some benefit out of it.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 15th January 2013
Given that the last labour government left the country on the verge of bankruptcy, and mismanaged the country's finances on a disastrous scale, the thought of what they could do to the letting industry scares me rigid.
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Given that the last labour government left the country on the verge of bankruptcy, and mismanaged the country's finances on a disastrous scale, the thought of what they could do to the letting industry scares me rigid.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 15th January 2013
Hopefully the income from this will give them the funding to put their house in order; we moved all of our DPS deposits over to the TDS to be safe, too many unexplained delays in getting the deposits back from the DPS over the last 6 months.
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Hopefully the income from this will give them the funding to put their house in order; we moved all of our DPS deposits over to the TDS to be safe, too many unexplained delays in getting the deposits back from the DPS over the last 6 months.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 16th January 2013
@Smartagent Institutional security??? like the banks you mean? or the government gold reserves that we used to have? or the FSA? or our pension funds that we no longer exist? You really think global institutions are exempt for financial problems? then you're as naive as your post suggests. And if you think the government 'licensing' of the DPS will protect you in the event anything untoward does happen to them, then you are very, very wrong. If anything happens to us our CMP will kick in and ensure no one loses out; if anything happens to the DPS the agent will be carrying the can for the whole amount if you have advised your clients to use them. That aside, we, like a lot of agents, landlords and tenants in the UK, are fed up with the constant delays and hoop jumping we are faced with when dealing with the DPS over straight forward disputes of even a few pounds. Our tenants do feel safer knowing that we can release their deposit back to them when the tenancy is over rather than waiting for the DPS to shuffle all their paperwork around, especially if there is any dispute. They've just taken 7 weeks to return part of a tenants deposit to them even though we both agreed it 6 weeks ago. If they were an agent delaying the return of the deposit for that long, what would you think? On average we release deposits within 3-5 days under the TDS; usually double that with DPS before the tenant sees their money back IF there is no dispute. We are affiliated to RICS, and longstanding members of ARLA, TPOS, and NALS. We are also members of Safeagent. Clearly a lot of people on this forum don't value those bodies but to us it means we are standing up to be seen, not lurking in the shadows. We pay for an independent audit of our client accounts every year, we have nothing to hide and our clients and landlords are at no risk whatsoever.
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@Smartagent Institutional security??? like the banks you mean? or the government gold reserves that we used to have? or the FSA? or our pension funds that we no longer exist? You really think global institutions are exempt for financial problems? then you're as naive as your post suggests. And if you think the government 'licensing' of the DPS will protect you in the event anything untoward does happen to them, then you are very, very wrong. If anything happens to us our CMP will kick in and ensure no one loses out; if anything happens to the DPS the agent will be carrying the can for the whole amount if you have advised your clients to use them. That aside, we, like a lot of agents, landlords and tenants in the UK, are fed up with the constant delays and hoop jumping we are faced with when dealing with the DPS over straight forward disputes of even a few pounds. Our tenants do feel safer knowing that we can release their deposit back to them when the tenancy is over rather than waiting for the DPS to shuffle all their paperwork around, especially if there is any dispute. They've just taken 7 weeks to return part of a tenants deposit to them even though we both agreed it 6 weeks ago. If they were an agent delaying the return of the deposit for that long, what would you think? On average we release deposits within 3-5 days under the TDS; usually double that with DPS before the tenant sees their money back IF there is no dispute. We are affiliated to RICS, and longstanding members of ARLA, TPOS, and NALS. We are also members of Safeagent. Clearly a lot of people on this forum don't value those bodies but to us it means we are standing up to be seen, not lurking in the shadows. We pay for an independent audit of our client accounts every year, we have nothing to hide and our clients and landlords are at no risk whatsoever.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 16th January 2013
I think Eric has got a good idea there; giving the consumer some teeth is always better than waiting for a disinterested local authority department to decide what to do.
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I think Eric has got a good idea there; giving the consumer some teeth is always better than waiting for a disinterested local authority department to decide what to do.
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Posted Date: Thursday 17th January 2013
@ puzzled “The firm was a NALS agent until May 2010 and we have recompensed consumers through the NALS Client Money Protection Scheme where loss has been evidenced" Did you miss this bit?
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@ puzzled “The firm was a NALS agent until May 2010 and we have recompensed consumers through the NALS Client Money Protection Scheme where loss has been evidenced" Did you miss this bit?
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Posted Date: Thursday 17th January 2013
Shelter won't give a toss about this; as far as they will be concerned its just collateral damage from a political move made by them; sure, they'll try to claim the moral high ground and say its profiteering by landlords and agents and not as a result of their meddling, but the end result is the same, higher rents for tenants.
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Shelter won't give a toss about this; as far as they will be concerned its just collateral damage from a political move made by them; sure, they'll try to claim the moral high ground and say its profiteering by landlords and agents and not as a result of their meddling, but the end result is the same, higher rents for tenants.
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Posted Date: Thursday 17th January 2013
Did they poll their own landlords and tenants? if so its a massive shot to their own foot. Rent from us and pay higher rent, pmsl
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Did they poll their own landlords and tenants? if so its a massive shot to their own foot. Rent from us and pay higher rent, pmsl
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Posted Date: Thursday 17th January 2013
@ IO Landlords have been known to steal the odd deposit too you know ;-) I think Rob's idea is quite good, shouldn't be too hard to implement if the power that be wanted too and it would remove us, the agent, from the picture completely.
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@ IO Landlords have been known to steal the odd deposit too you know ;-) I think Rob's idea is quite good, shouldn't be too hard to implement if the power that be wanted too and it would remove us, the agent, from the picture completely.
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Posted Date: Monday 21st January 2013
Brave move Nick, I'll speak to our directors today.
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Brave move Nick, I'll speak to our directors today.
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Posted Date: Wednesday 23rd January 2013
@revel without a cause "The terms of business for the TDS says you cannot do it yourself, neither can the landlord and it must be done by a (neutral) 3rd party." Would you care to point to where you think it says that in the Rules of Membership?
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@revel without a cause "The terms of business for the TDS says you cannot do it yourself, neither can the landlord and it must be done by a (neutral) 3rd party." Would you care to point to where you think it says that in the Rules of Membership?
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Posted Date: Tuesday 29th January 2013
That is an absurd amount of money to have sucked out of landlords and the public purse in comparison to such a low annual running figure. Dare anyone ask what happened to the other £15.9 raised and what it was used for?
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That is an absurd amount of money to have sucked out of landlords and the public purse in comparison to such a low annual running figure. Dare anyone ask what happened to the other £15.9 raised and what it was used for?
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Posted Date: Thursday 31st January 2013
Unbelievable! How can this man walk away from a scandal like this totally unpunished? It is no wonder that the general public think we are all crooks when they see a piece of scum like this walk away unscathed
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Unbelievable! How can this man walk away from a scandal like this totally unpunished? It is no wonder that the general public think we are all crooks when they see a piece of scum like this walk away unscathed
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Posted Date: Thursday 31st January 2013
"Although Boycott is only asking for negative stories, there seems no reason why something a little more positive should not be posted up here:" ww.action.shelter.org.uk lol, do you REALLY think they would allow a positive post to contaminate their 'evidence', hahahaha dream on
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"Although Boycott is only asking for negative stories, there seems no reason why something a little more positive should not be posted up here:" ww.action.shelter.org.uk lol, do you REALLY think they would allow a positive post to contaminate their 'evidence', hahahaha dream on
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Posted Date: Tuesday 12th February 2013
We have a couple of agents in town who do this, the last one I saw was £35 plus vat. The tenant, against my advice, paid for it and we got a one line ref - 'The tenant moved in on xx/xx/xx and paid the rent on time' They point blank refused to answer the six short questions on our standard reference request letter and had the cheek to suggest that they might if we also paid them for a reference!! My reply is not printable here. Personally I think its reprehensible for an agent to charge for what is a common courtesy to another agent or landlord and a service to a tenant who has rented a property from you and already provided you with an income.
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We have a couple of agents in town who do this, the last one I saw was £35 plus vat. The tenant, against my advice, paid for it and we got a one line ref - 'The tenant moved in on xx/xx/xx and paid the rent on time' They point blank refused to answer the six short questions on our standard reference request letter and had the cheek to suggest that they might if we also paid them for a reference!! My reply is not printable here. Personally I think its reprehensible for an agent to charge for what is a common courtesy to another agent or landlord and a service to a tenant who has rented a property from you and already provided you with an income.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 12th February 2013
"You people who make no charge at all for your labour. Are you really business people or a charity? Get real and charge a reasonable amount. Something for free is not usually worth much!" We are in the service industry; we just don't see it as a last chance to screw money out of someone who we have already earned out of. A reference isn't enhanced in anyway by being paid for
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"You people who make no charge at all for your labour. Are you really business people or a charity? Get real and charge a reasonable amount. Something for free is not usually worth much!" We are in the service industry; we just don't see it as a last chance to screw money out of someone who we have already earned out of. A reference isn't enhanced in anyway by being paid for
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Posted Date: Tuesday 12th February 2013
St Mungos are a great charity, I hope they benefit from some of the extra funds
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St Mungos are a great charity, I hope they benefit from some of the extra funds
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Posted Date: Thursday 14th February 2013
Naming them on here will do exactly nothing even it LAT allowed you to do it, which they probably won't as they have no idea whether what you say is true. Go to Trading Standards at your local Council if you believe this agent has done wrong; the Police won't be interested unless there has been criminal activity; this is more likely to be a civil matter
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Naming them on here will do exactly nothing even it LAT allowed you to do it, which they probably won't as they have no idea whether what you say is true. Go to Trading Standards at your local Council if you believe this agent has done wrong; the Police won't be interested unless there has been criminal activity; this is more likely to be a civil matter
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Posted Date: Friday 15th February 2013
What will they do when they discover that some agents contain upto 90% horsemeat? surely thats next?
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What will they do when they discover that some agents contain upto 90% horsemeat? surely thats next?
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Posted Date: Wednesday 20th February 2013
I agree, there are just two from our town -both franchises - out of the 30+ that are engaged in lettings on some level. Its not as though the general public are even aware of these awards, much less interested in the outcome.
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I agree, there are just two from our town -both franchises - out of the 30+ that are engaged in lettings on some level. Its not as though the general public are even aware of these awards, much less interested in the outcome.
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Posted Date: Thursday 21st February 2013
I doubt anyone but the organisers, and a few of the entrants, take the estas as a serious competition to find the best agent anywhere. Its entered in the hope that some marketing advantage will come out of it - look, we won the best agent award for Little Testis on the Naze; it means nothing to Joe Public in reality. If it was open to all agents, i.e. not a pay to win type affair, then it might have some validity. I really don't see how allagents can be compared with the estas; its mostly a sniping gallery more than a serious attempt at offering a consumer review site. If you genuinely provide a great service to your clients, and your tenants are content to then you don't need a pre paid award to say you're doing a good job.
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I doubt anyone but the organisers, and a few of the entrants, take the estas as a serious competition to find the best agent anywhere. Its entered in the hope that some marketing advantage will come out of it - look, we won the best agent award for Little Testis on the Naze; it means nothing to Joe Public in reality. If it was open to all agents, i.e. not a pay to win type affair, then it might have some validity. I really don't see how allagents can be compared with the estas; its mostly a sniping gallery more than a serious attempt at offering a consumer review site. If you genuinely provide a great service to your clients, and your tenants are content to then you don't need a pre paid award to say you're doing a good job.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 26th February 2013
If you have a £1000pcm to spend on accommodation you don't live in a garage in someones back garden unless it is by choice. And what difference does it make if their first language is not english? just because they don't speak english as a first language doesn't make them stupid; they still know its a converted garage. Thats just the BBC trying to put their normal "its a race issue" slant on it
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If you have a £1000pcm to spend on accommodation you don't live in a garage in someones back garden unless it is by choice. And what difference does it make if their first language is not english? just because they don't speak english as a first language doesn't make them stupid; they still know its a converted garage. Thats just the BBC trying to put their normal "its a race issue" slant on it
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Posted Date: Tuesday 26th February 2013
@steve from leicester We have property in our Croydon portfolio for under £1000 and 4 beds at 1100-1200. None more than 6yrs old. We have no shortage of tenants. As I said in my previous post, don't go thinking people are stupid just because they don't speak english as a first lanquage. Unless they were spirited into the property at the dead of night without a chance to see any of the property around them it would be hard not to notice that what you were being shown was not the same as the houses in the street. They choose to live in an expensive part of the capital city of one of Europe's most expensive countries, they have a budget of £1000 for rent, they probably made an informed choice. I don't speak Croatian but I know if I went to Croatia to live and someone showed me a garage for 8800 Kuna I'd walk away The current image of 'beds in sheds' that the beeb would like to foster is not always reality; not all of them are damp unheated slums. My wife lived in Southall in the 70's and it was going on then with asian landlords literally putting beds in wooden garden sheds and then taking huge amounts of money off their own to let them 'live' there. The councils mostly turn a blind eye to the well built ones because it eases the lack of housing issue for them.
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@steve from leicester We have property in our Croydon portfolio for under £1000 and 4 beds at 1100-1200. None more than 6yrs old. We have no shortage of tenants. As I said in my previous post, don't go thinking people are stupid just because they don't speak english as a first lanquage. Unless they were spirited into the property at the dead of night without a chance to see any of the property around them it would be hard not to notice that what you were being shown was not the same as the houses in the street. They choose to live in an expensive part of the capital city of one of Europe's most expensive countries, they have a budget of £1000 for rent, they probably made an informed choice. I don't speak Croatian but I know if I went to Croatia to live and someone showed me a garage for 8800 Kuna I'd walk away The current image of 'beds in sheds' that the beeb would like to foster is not always reality; not all of them are damp unheated slums. My wife lived in Southall in the 70's and it was going on then with asian landlords literally putting beds in wooden garden sheds and then taking huge amounts of money off their own to let them 'live' there. The councils mostly turn a blind eye to the well built ones because it eases the lack of housing issue for them.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 26th February 2013
I wouldn't say that the ability to pay £1000 per month in rent would class them as poor or desparate - if that's the benchmark I must be almost destitute! I don't agree with whats happening here, and any agent who has involved themselves should be dealt with severely but this is a planning issue not a lettings issue and should be dealt with by the local planning offices - as Brent Council were shown doing last night in the programme - and not be blamed on letting agents. If they are complicit then hang them but they aren't laying the bricks to build them
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I wouldn't say that the ability to pay £1000 per month in rent would class them as poor or desparate - if that's the benchmark I must be almost destitute! I don't agree with whats happening here, and any agent who has involved themselves should be dealt with severely but this is a planning issue not a lettings issue and should be dealt with by the local planning offices - as Brent Council were shown doing last night in the programme - and not be blamed on letting agents. If they are complicit then hang them but they aren't laying the bricks to build them
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Posted Date: Thursday 28th February 2013
We were officially born in 1967 and we're still building in MK This is the typical junior politician answer for everything when they are desperate to get a soundbite out there - 'lets throw some money around, that will fix it'
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We were officially born in 1967 and we're still building in MK This is the typical junior politician answer for everything when they are desperate to get a soundbite out there - 'lets throw some money around, that will fix it'
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Posted Date: Thursday 28th February 2013
I have to agree with Robert to a certain extent. I've worked as as a letting consultant in the past helping other agencies to set up, offering advice and support and I've seem perfectly respectable agents, as honest as the day is long, who had deficits in their client accounts but never realised until I showed them how to carry out reconciliations between their bank accounts and their software accounts. One had been paying an ex landlord for almost a year without realising it because of a recurring error in his software and was over £12000 short in his bank client account but his software said he was fine. He put the money back in within 24 hours of me pointing out to him where it had gone; he still hasn't recovered all of it from the ex landlord. Its easy for anyone to come on here and say they've never made a mistake or that its not rocket science, but errors do get made sometimes and if they go unnoticed you can be out by a lot if you don't know how and where to look for it. I'm amazed the Police don't take more notice when agents start getting reported by landlords in their droves; we had one in MK recently, that makes all the recent reports in the press seem like small change, that was reported to the Police by over 40 landlords that we know of and yet there is still no sign of this guy and his partner being prosecuted for theft, fraud or any other crime. The TSO in MK is not really interested until after the event so not much joy there either. The industry needs a body who have the power to step in and investigate when things start to go wrong regardless of whether the agent is a member of RICS, ARLA or anyone else. The existing bodies are too slow to act if they act at all
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I have to agree with Robert to a certain extent. I've worked as as a letting consultant in the past helping other agencies to set up, offering advice and support and I've seem perfectly respectable agents, as honest as the day is long, who had deficits in their client accounts but never realised until I showed them how to carry out reconciliations between their bank accounts and their software accounts. One had been paying an ex landlord for almost a year without realising it because of a recurring error in his software and was over £12000 short in his bank client account but his software said he was fine. He put the money back in within 24 hours of me pointing out to him where it had gone; he still hasn't recovered all of it from the ex landlord. Its easy for anyone to come on here and say they've never made a mistake or that its not rocket science, but errors do get made sometimes and if they go unnoticed you can be out by a lot if you don't know how and where to look for it. I'm amazed the Police don't take more notice when agents start getting reported by landlords in their droves; we had one in MK recently, that makes all the recent reports in the press seem like small change, that was reported to the Police by over 40 landlords that we know of and yet there is still no sign of this guy and his partner being prosecuted for theft, fraud or any other crime. The TSO in MK is not really interested until after the event so not much joy there either. The industry needs a body who have the power to step in and investigate when things start to go wrong regardless of whether the agent is a member of RICS, ARLA or anyone else. The existing bodies are too slow to act if they act at all
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Posted Date: Thursday 28th February 2013
I'd go along with a custodial scheme if a) it came with a Government backed guarantee, and b) they found someone responsible to operate it.
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I'd go along with a custodial scheme if a) it came with a Government backed guarantee, and b) they found someone responsible to operate it.
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Posted Date: Thursday 7th March 2013
Isn't it strange that none of the Labour mp's that are banging on about it now weren't so keen to do anything about it when Labour were in power for 13 years
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Isn't it strange that none of the Labour mp's that are banging on about it now weren't so keen to do anything about it when Labour were in power for 13 years
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Posted Date: Friday 15th March 2013
I am truly appalled at the tirade of vitriolic scorn and conjecture that has been displayed here by some posters. It is no wonder that a large proportion of the uk public think we are the devil's own spawn when we respond like this, on a public forum, to one of our own. Perhaps Mr Wilson was ill advised to throw in an advert for his own company's charges when he could have used an unnamed example but he is quite right to rail at the £150 per person charge for a 5 person let. It may be that he didn't know all the facts, but even so we are talking about £750 to prepare an agreement! a ridiculous figure in anyone's world and especially so if asked for again at the point of renewal. If the standard of spelling, and the interpretations of the legislation that affects us, of some of the posters is in anyway indicative of their standards of service, then God help the industry because no one else will.
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I am truly appalled at the tirade of vitriolic scorn and conjecture that has been displayed here by some posters. It is no wonder that a large proportion of the uk public think we are the devil's own spawn when we respond like this, on a public forum, to one of our own. Perhaps Mr Wilson was ill advised to throw in an advert for his own company's charges when he could have used an unnamed example but he is quite right to rail at the £150 per person charge for a 5 person let. It may be that he didn't know all the facts, but even so we are talking about £750 to prepare an agreement! a ridiculous figure in anyone's world and especially so if asked for again at the point of renewal. If the standard of spelling, and the interpretations of the legislation that affects us, of some of the posters is in anyway indicative of their standards of service, then God help the industry because no one else will.
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Posted Date: Tuesday 19th March 2013
@raj You've rang this particular bell on many occasions on this forum; have you actually followed ANY of the advice you were offered?
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@raj You've rang this particular bell on many occasions on this forum; have you actually followed ANY of the advice you were offered?
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Posted Date: Friday 22nd March 2013
@ terry lovett From NALS "The ASA administers the Codes of Advertising Practice in the UK. The basic requirement is that all advertisements are ‘legal, decent, honest and truthful’. In theory compliance with the ASA’s rulings is voluntary given that the system is one of self-regulation, but the ASA does have a range of sanctions available where an advertiser does not comply with its Codes, including the possibility of referring the matter to the Office of Fair Trading which may take legal enforcement action."
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@ terry lovett From NALS "The ASA administers the Codes of Advertising Practice in the UK. The basic requirement is that all advertisements are ‘legal, decent, honest and truthful’. In theory compliance with the ASA’s rulings is voluntary given that the system is one of self-regulation, but the ASA does have a range of sanctions available where an advertiser does not comply with its Codes, including the possibility of referring the matter to the Office of Fair Trading which may take legal enforcement action."
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Posted Date: Friday 12th April 2013
Our portfolio must be protected by an anti arrears bubble then because our arrears are at an all time low including the large portfolio we manage in one of the poorer areas of south london.
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Our portfolio must be protected by an anti arrears bubble then because our arrears are at an all time low including the large portfolio we manage in one of the poorer areas of south london.
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Posted Date: Friday 12th April 2013
oh my god, who would ever have thought that living in the centre of one of the busiest capital cities in the world would be expensive? Bringing in rent controls will really help the market won't it; investor will be flocking to join the 'gold rush' to lose money Sorry for the sarcasm but really? is this the best Labour can come up with?
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oh my god, who would ever have thought that living in the centre of one of the busiest capital cities in the world would be expensive? Bringing in rent controls will really help the market won't it; investor will be flocking to join the 'gold rush' to lose money Sorry for the sarcasm but really? is this the best Labour can come up with?
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Posted Date: Tuesday 30th April 2013
I what world does heather kennedy come from? if she really believes that major lenders listen to the us mere mortals and base their lending criteria on what letting agents say then she is more deluded than the story above suggests. time to call the men in white coats.
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I what world does heather kennedy come from? if she really believes that major lenders listen to the us mere mortals and base their lending criteria on what letting agents say then she is more deluded than the story above suggests. time to call the men in white coats.
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Posted Date: Thursday 2nd May 2013
what next from this obnoxious man? renting causes disabilities in children? renting causes cancer? using children to push his political views across is about as vile as you can get.
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what next from this obnoxious man? renting causes disabilities in children? renting causes cancer? using children to push his political views across is about as vile as you can get.
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Posted Date: Thursday 2nd May 2013
whatever happened to the concept of caveat emptor? why on earth wouldn't you ask the cost of something before proceeding? and if you ask, and they don't/won't tell you, why would you then proceed anyway?
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whatever happened to the concept of caveat emptor? why on earth wouldn't you ask the cost of something before proceeding? and if you ask, and they don't/won't tell you, why would you then proceed anyway?
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Posted Date: Tuesday 7th May 2013
Fencesitter wins. We've only been a country of house owners for a very short time At the start of the first world war 90% of the available housing stock was privately rented. House ownership started to rise in the early 50's as the economic conditions following the second world war lifted, the prs had dropped to below 10% by the late 80's. Its grown back significantly since then but will go into decline again if hit with too much governmental control, i.e. rent caps, tenant favoured agreements etc are forced onto investors.
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Fencesitter wins. We've only been a country of house owners for a very short time At the start of the first world war 90% of the available housing stock was privately rented. House ownership started to rise in the early 50's as the economic conditions following the second world war lifted, the prs had dropped to below 10% by the late 80's. Its grown back significantly since then but will go into decline again if hit with too much governmental control, i.e. rent caps, tenant favoured agreements etc are forced onto investors.
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Posted Date: Thursday 9th May 2013
I'm amazed to hear of so many agents and landlords who don't already do this; its hardly rocket science to check a passport for overseas applicants and see if it has a valid visa attached. All the information required to do that can be found on the government website; type of visas, who is able to get one etc. We make sure the visa is valid for the term of tenancy requested; if it isn't then the tenancy offer is withdrawn unless the Home Office can confirm it will be renewed when due. We have had the odd 'racist' accusation directed at us for this policy but strangely enough only from the people who have been rejected for not having a valid visa for being in the country. And I have no problem with reporting them to the authorities either, anymore than I would with reporting a drug dealing tenant to the police. We used to call it doing our civic duty when I was growing up.
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I'm amazed to hear of so many agents and landlords who don't already do this; its hardly rocket science to check a passport for overseas applicants and see if it has a valid visa attached. All the information required to do that can be found on the government website; type of visas, who is able to get one etc. We make sure the visa is valid for the term of tenancy requested; if it isn't then the tenancy offer is withdrawn unless the Home Office can confirm it will be renewed when due. We have had the odd 'racist' accusation directed at us for this policy but strangely enough only from the people who have been rejected for not having a valid visa for being in the country. And I have no problem with reporting them to the authorities either, anymore than I would with reporting a drug dealing tenant to the police. We used to call it doing our civic duty when I was growing up.
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Posted Date: Thursday 9th May 2013
@ ray evans In fairness Ray I don't think anyone is expecting landlords to become 'immigration experts' but to just carry out a few extra basic checks; at least make an effort to try to find out who the person is. One doesn't need to be an expert to check whether a passport has a valid visa or to decline someone who can't produce a passport. This government may not be perfect but they are slowly trying to stop up the gaping holes in our border security created by the last labour government. Closing the gate after the horse has bolted springs to mind.
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@ ray evans In fairness Ray I don't think anyone is expecting landlords to become 'immigration experts' but to just carry out a few extra basic checks; at least make an effort to try to find out who the person is. One doesn't need to be an expert to check whether a passport has a valid visa or to decline someone who can't produce a passport. This government may not be perfect but they are slowly trying to stop up the gaping holes in our border security created by the last labour government. Closing the gate after the horse has bolted springs to mind.
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A great way to educate your landlord on Inventories
- Capita enters into tenancy deposit protection........
- Crystal Horwood Blog........
- Rental services firm offered ministers free immigrant check service........
- Fresh expansion for Leaders after deal with Cotswolds agent ........
- Belvoir scoops Redwoods business for £1.5m ........
- Average rents on the rise as London hits new record........
- New voluntary code introduced for managing agents........
- Actor who played conman tells how he was ripped off by agents........
- Agents featured in Watchdog programme defend themselves ........
- Take fines threat over immigration seriously, lawyers warn........
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"security of tenure and reduce the costs of letting" this sounds like yet another Labour led attempt to force private sector landlords to become social housing landlords. This is the sort of lunatic fringe nonsense that cost him the last election. Please Ken, try some joined up thinking for once.
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