ARLA
PRESS RELEASE: ARLA Response to TDS and Unregulated Agents
January 2009
Lettings
agents should be required to take a professional qualification before they are
allowed to set up shop in the High Street, according to the Association of Residential
Lettings Agents.(ARLA)
Ian
Potter, Operations Manager of the ARLA, said that the time had come to raise awareness
about unregulated lettings agents – many of whom have had no formal training and
may be completely unqualified. They are also immune from any form of disciplinary
action for misconduct
He
said: “The fact that at the moment anybody can work as a lettings agent is ludicrous
and, more to the point, dangerous as it may create great risks for consumers in
the current climate.
“We
need to ensure the standards of the lettings profession are upheld without exception
– this means compulsory training and qualifications for anyone wishing to let
a property on behalf of another, as well as Client Money Protection, Professional
Indemnity Insurance, and audited client bank accounts. Many agents hold client’s
funds mixed in with their own business funds and this offers no protection if
the agents business fails.
The announcement comes as the Tenancy Deposit Protection Service declared that
it would no longer guarantee the deposits of unregulated lettings agents.
Ian continued: “It’s high time the Government got off the fence and demanded regulation
for the rental market and the compulsory licensing of agents. Setting professional
standards for the industry is the first step to eliminating the cowboys.” ARLA
plans to introduce its own licensing scheme for letting agents later this year,
which its members will be obliged to join. .
ARLAis the Lettings and Residential Management Division of
the Federation of Property Professionals.
Tenancy
Deposit Protection Withdrawn From Unregulated Letting Agents
At
the insistence of their insurers, The Tenancy
Deposit Scheme will only provide deposit protection and alternative dispute
resolution to letting agents who are members of recognised professional bodies.
From April 6, only regulated letting agents and corporate and individual landlords
will be covered by the Tenancy Deposit Scheme and cover will be withdrawn from
unregulated agents. Tenants are advised to ensure their landlords have made alternative
arrangements to safeguard deposits as soon as possible.
The Scheme advises landlords and tenants to be certain that their lettings agents
are members of either the Association
of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), The
National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS), the
National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), or the Royal Institution of
Chartered Surveyors (RICS); or that deposits are protected under one of the other
government authorised deposit protection schemes: Tenancy Deposit Solutions (trading
as mydeposits.com) or The Deposit Protection Service.
The
Tenancy Deposit Scheme is writing to all current tenants whose tenancy is shown
to have been arranged through an unregulated agent to advise them of the change
in protection that can be offered and the course of action to take to ensure protection
as the law requires. The agents concerned should advise their tenants and landlords
of what they intend to do on their behalf. The Tenancy Deposit Scheme regrets
the action it has been forced to take, but points out that it is due to circumstances
that are well beyond its control January
2009
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