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Fees much bigger worry than online agents, says state-of-the-sector report

Repairs software provider Fixflo has issued its annual state-of-the-lettings-industry report - with fees the biggest concern to letting agents.

 

Some 42 per cent of agents were worried most by the fees ban with the second concern being a lack of landlord instructions - named by 19 per cent. 

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The findings suggest 40 per cent of agents know of a landlord who has changed agent because of a poorly managed repair issue: apparently agents using spreadsheets to manage repairs were over 10 times more worried about their ability to take on additional landlord clients than those using specialist software.

 

The report notes that although there has been much discussion centred around the apparent threat of online agents, most of the respondents to the Fixflo survey listed local traditional agencies as the larger threat. However, agencies with 10 or more high street branches were nearly six times more concerned than single-office operators about the impact of online companies.

Some 20 per cent of agents had been asked to provide evidence of an 'adequate response' when serving a S21 notice. 

"This is a trend we expect to increase with growing consumer awareness when it comes to regulations and the use of legal advisors - in 2016 11 per cent of agents didn't even know what constituted an 'adequate response'" says the report.

Nearly 400 lettings professionals managing an estimated 90,000 properties responded to the report, making it one of the most authoritative in the sector. In addition, Fixflo has used data from its own archive of almost 500,000 repair reports. 

It's a fascinating report and you can download it here.

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    Fixflow would say that ?

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