Carla Keegans

DIRECTOR

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About Me

I'm the founding director of, and run, The Ethical Lettings Agency CIC in Redcar, working across Teesside. I'm a qualified housing professional, having worked across the UK housing sector for about 17 years. From trainee to Director! We're open to all, and pride ourselves on our expert services, and our fair fees. We're setting new standards for the lettings industry; reflecting the realities of today's PRS. We're a Community Interest Company (CIC) and choose to reinvest our profits locally and help tackle homelessness.

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We welcome this move, unlike most agents it appears! And we won't put our fees up to landlords, again unlike most agents it appears. Why? Well it's simple, we believe the lettings industry is out of touch with society, and certainly with a profoundly changed private rental market. Over 20% of the population now live in the private rental market, many of whom are voters - a big reason why the government is getting involved. Also because over £9 BILLION of public money being spent in housing benefit. The norm business model of having high, hidden, and duplicate fees has to end. We believe this is the case not just for tenant fees, but also for landlords fees. Our business model is based on fair fees for expert services, so we don't have to increase landlord fees. So, we welcome the Government's move to introduce more transparency and accountability, and of course the obvious starting point for this is fees. Agents who keep to this mantra of 'rents will go up' will face mounting public criticism as people start asking 'why?' particularly from landlords. Adapt or die comes to mind!

From: Carla Keegans 07 April 2017 13:44 PM

It's good to see some responsible agents commenting here. Unfortunately in our area it is common practice for agents to charge fees to multiple tenants knowing fine well they'll only be giving the property to one. As well as a string of one-off fees. So we agree with scrapping tenant fees, and also with agents not being able to charge hidden fees in the management of landlord's properties. The wider picture is that any Government has to respond to the urgent issues in the housing market, and now the PRS accounts for about 20% of the population; public safeguards have to be in place, including ensuring best use of public money (Housing Benefit). So, yes, we envisage more regulation of the PRS, and we'd welcome this. The lettings industry needs to adapt and respond to the reality of the PRS - something we think responsible agents will respond positively to!

From: Carla Keegans 23 November 2016 11:10 AM

Yes it is unfortunately a growing and serious problem. We assist homeless people and those at risk of homelessness, by working with good landlords that trust us in what we're doing based on our unique qualifications and experience. We have been fortunate to receive some grant funding too from the Virgin Money Foundations to help us in this work in the Redcar and Cleveland area. FYI there is a private members bill going through parliament, in partnership with the charity Crisis, that will place more duty on councils to take preventative action before eviction notices expire - this is something we totally agree with. That's because private tenancy evictions are the biggest cause of homelessness nationally now, and many councils do need to do more. However, the fundamental lack of housing supply in this country is still a root cause, combined with unprecedented benefit cuts.

From: Carla Keegans 23 August 2016 09:59 AM

Absolutely agree it should be mandatory - £2.7 billion being held as a minimum - surely a no brainer! We get ours through our membership of UKALA.

From: Carla Keegans 23 August 2016 09:53 AM

Interesting idea, but one that still does not address the lack of new housing supply! All it will do is shuffle the decks of housing tenure between renting and ownership; not create new housing. Absolutely agree with above comment that for many smaller landlords, it's the long-term capital appreciation that they're in it for, not revenue profits (certainly up here in the North East!). And we absolutely need a housing strategy, with regional variations, to address housing need first. At the moment, it's still all about London and the SE!

From: Carla Keegans 13 June 2016 15:57 PM

Prevention is crucial! Home visits should always be carried out during tenancies. We also carry out pre-check-out inspections to advise the tenant what needs doing before their end date; gives them the chance to put things right and avoid deposit disputes. Ultimately, a good agent should always provide a comprehensive housing management service for their landlord customers to prevent tenancy problems. See our website for details: www.ethicallettingsagency.co.uk

From: Carla Keegans 26 May 2016 13:23 PM

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