Countrywide has issued an unusual statement saying that the veteran lettings expert recruited to steer the organisation through the tenant fee ban has now left.

John Hards, national lettings director, had previously joined Countrywide in 1994 with the acquisition of Nationwide, but left in recent years. 

However, he rejoined Countrywide in March 2018 with the specific task of leading the project in order to deliver a programme of services, products and training for the group in line with the introduction of the tenant fee ban. 

These included enhanced staff training with a focus on the new regulations, improved referencing, improved technology and the introduction of zero deposit options for tenants. 

The project, which ran from April 2018 to the end of September this year, supports the introduction of the new legislation in England and Wales prohibiting landlords and their tenants from charging a number of fees. 

“Having worked with ARLA and the Lettings Industry Council, John was well placed to understand our business, our people and the new regulations” says Paul Chapman, Countrywide’s national managing director of sales and lettings. 

“It was great to have John back on board working with the teams to really understand the ban, what it would mean to us and how we could introduce and embed the changes across all of our lettings businesses”.

The Countrywide statement says Hards left the business at the end of September having successfully delivered the final phase of the project with the roll out of the Welsh tenant fee ban on September 1. 

The statement says: “His departure date was pre-agreed and relates only to the successful delivery of the project. He continues to act as a consultant for LetCheck, a property inventory business and is a director at Propoly, the online lettings company. He is also a member of the Lettings Industry Council and has a number of consultancy projects due to start in January.”