The head of a property management company is calling on the government to introduce a tenants’ register which would help rogue renters be identified.
Robert Evans, who runs fixed-fee firm Property Wealth Management, says the sector needs to help identify what he calls “dodge tenants” as much as it helps identify rogue Letting agents and landlords.
He believes that will only happen with the mandatory introduction of a national register that identifies tenants with a history of non-payment of rent, vandalism and anti-social behaviour.
“It’s absolutely right that tenants should be able to in a check on the landlord they’re planning to rent from. But in the same way, it has to be Ishtar for landlords to get the same help to avoid the nightmare situation of having a tenant who won’t pay or won’t leave” says Evans.
He says such a register could be central to the tenant referencing process and help mitigate the effects of the proposed ban on letting agents’ fees levied on tenants in England.
“The introduction of the ban on letting agents’ fees to tenants unfortunately means agents will pass those charges on to landlords – unfairly in my view – in order to recoup a loss in income. If that happens I can see a situation fast developing in which landlords already saddled with high agency commission fees decide they can’t afford to use a letting agent at all.”
