Since the tenant fee ban came into force in 2019 there has been a knee-jerk reaction from letting agents to increase their fees to Landlord to help cover the loss that they were going to see from not being able to charge tenants.
But with the increase in fees sadly we did not see an increase in service.
Statistics released by The Property Ombudsman in their last annual report showed that communication and property management were the highest source of the complaints.
Why is it with all of the technology available at our fingertips, the majority of letting agent still fail to communicate and still fail to manage our properties to a good standard, surely as the professionals in the industry letting agents should have the upper hand of both knowledge and skill when it comes to managing a landlords property.
It would seem that many agency owners do not put as much value in the role of a property manager as they do their negotiators, even though property Managment is the bread and butter of many agents who would undoubtedly fold without it.
Qualifications and training of property managers are not high on many Directors to do lists.
Yet, property managers rarely have the knowledge or skill set to effectively manage 1 property let alone the agency average of 250 and find that in many situations the landlord is actually more knowledgable than the agent they are paying to be the expert.
Nothing more than glorified PAs to the landlords property managers still only seem able to take a maintenance report from a tenant and pass this on to the landlords and wait to be told what to do next. is that really worth 15% of your monthly rental income?
Surely the reason many landlords opt for a fully managed service is to be hands off and not be bothered by the tenant calling about the silliest of things, instead the landlords simply swaps that scenario to have the agent bother them with every little thing.
Agents and especially property managers need to understand they are presenting themselves as the industry experts and start to take pride in the fundamental service that a Landord relies on.
I have worked with a number of letting agents and seen the poor quality of property Managment, many don’t know the very basics of the landlords responsibility let alone have an understanding of the legislation.
Most reported illegal Evictions are actually carried out by letting agents and not, as the media would have you believe, rogue landlords.
But the crux of the issue here is, no matter how inexperienced or how monumental the mistake an agent makes, the law states the responsibility lies with the Landord, so when your property manager doesn’t serve your Gas certificate on the correct date or fails to register a deposit and you find you can’t evict your tenant, ultimately the buck stops with the landlord, it is the Landord who gets the hefty fine it is the Landord who is stuck with thousands of pounds of court fees.
So what is the answer?
Communication isn’t difficult in this day and age and with some good basic knowledge and an ability to use a diary, property managing isn’t rocket science.
But until the industry starts to take this area of its own business more seriously, sadly we will continue to see complaints rise and more landlords fall foul of a glossy sales pitch and be left out of pocket and tenants will suffer poor housing standards through lack of remedy.
