Agents no longer the property professionals

 The law only operates Monday-Friday 

 I wrote an article back in December 2013 called “Landlords still ignoring the Law books in favour of DIY Lettings”

I love reading back over my historic articles to see what’s changed in the ever evolving world of private lettings, this article in particular stood out.

It would seem to me nothing has changed in 9 years or even it has got worse, and landlords are still taking it upon themselves to self-manage but failing to educate themselves on the basics and still not following the 101 rules of letting.

But can landlords be forgiven for doing it themselves when the letting agencies on offer, really are poor pickings

This aside, what has come as more of a shock to me in more recent years is the lack of knowledge and experience of letting agents.

Agents who have been in the industry for many years, are Nationally recognised firms yet, are still totally uneducated on the very fundamentals of the PRS and creating untold issues for their landlords.

Now most landlords probably don’t realise that even if they have an agent fully managing the property, if anything does wrong, ultimately it is the landlord who can be fined, penalised and even imprisoned.

So why are the property professionals getting it so wrong?

Could it be lack of understanding of the industry

Could it be a focus on income rather than level of service

Could it be agents don’t believe the law is anything to do with them

Could it be agency owners don’t want to invest in young staff

Or could it be an influx of “Get rich quick” boomers who believe being a letting agent is a piece of piss?

Whatever the reason, something has to stop.

Just yesterday I was contacted by a new landlord who had opted to use an agent because he knew he didn’t know enough about the law and didn’t want to get anything wrong………….. You know where this is going right?

The agent who works for a Nationally recognised lettings firm, who herself has 10 years experience and was an ARLA qualified agent, advised the landlord that the LAW was as follows:-

·   You cannot issue a 12 months tenancy to a tenant when they first move in, you can only give 6 months, after the first tenancy you can then issue 12 months.

·         You do not have to protect a deposit if the tenancy is for less than 6 months

And my personal favorite

We only issue ASTs, there is no other type of tenancy available so everyone goes on an AST and all deposits have to be protected no matter what 

When the landlord asked for clarification on this I was, lost for words, I gave the landlord the CORRECT information and then called the agent myself, and still she was adamant that she was and I quote “fully on top on the law thank you”                  Well sorry sister…. No you ain’t

Sadly this is not an isolated incident, with the majority of agents not knowing the difference between a S21 and S8 or even knowing that once these expire court is the next step.

My own personal experience when I was reading through the AST of the property I was about to rent and came across the following clauses

All checkouts conducted on Saturday will incur a £380 charge

When I questioned this, and reminded them of the Tenant Fee Ban act 2019, I was amused by the response

“The Tenant Fee Ban act doesn’t apply on Saturdays”

Well it’s always good to be advised that the law is only available Monday to Friday and maybe even 9-5

I’m sure the police will be relieved for the weekends off…

But I jest….The Lack of basic knowledge seems to be common throughout the industry and with many landlords knowing what they don’t know and entrusting agents to do the right thing, why on earth should landlords use agents? As it seems it is just the blind leading the blind.

We know the regulation of property agents ( RoPA) is coming and I truly hope that comes sooner rather than later because it is nothing better than the wild west out there for landlords at the moment, it is a shame that agents do not take a pride in their professional and aspire to be the best and deliver a great service.

Targets and commissions trump knowledge and expertise, makes me ashamed to be part of this industry at times

 

Did you know mediation could save you money and avoid court

 

I read a very interesting article in The Law Society Gazette, which focused on mediation and the results of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) recent call for evidence.

The thing that stuck out like a sore thumb to me was ‘high proportion’ of respondents who were not aware of a dispute resolution processes and cited a lack of publicly available information on this.

I have to agree, in my chosen area of mediation, Landlord and tenant, it does still surprise me how many landlords and tenants do not know that mediation is even available in this specific field and how greatly that service can resolve issues such as rent arrears without the cost of going to court.

The other interesting point was that Mediation was viewed by many as a token step along the inevitable road to court, I would be interested to know who the actually respondents to this question were, the reason for this is mediation is designed to prevent the need for court and the only people I know that would want to prevent that is solicitors, because with an early resolution, their payday is much less.

Now I do see many solicitors train to be mediators and do the job well, however, I do still hear stories from people who have had a solicitor mediate, that the session itself was biased and the solicitor was still looking for a party to win.

Is mediation about winning?

I believe it is, but I see the outcome as Win Win, both the landlord and the tenant get an outcome that they are happy with and 9 times out of 10 it avoids court.

If you ask anyone that has gone through the tireless stages of court proceedings, they will tell you they wish they would have reached a settlement using another method

Is it really neutral?

Again I would say yes a majority of the time, I certainly find mediators with no legal background make better mediators than those who do, why? Because the law teaches us to see right and wrong and focuses our mind on having a good guy and a bad guy.

Mediation is not about the law, it is about what is best for the 2 people in the room at that moment.

Yes of course the mediator has to make sure that what is being agreed is legal and not criminal, but at the same time it doesn’t have to follow the letter of the law.

For example, legally the landlord can pursue a tenant to court to recover all rent owed, at mediation, the landlord has the option to reduce the arrears in order to get a swift move out or offer a financial incentive to the tenant. These options are available in court

I do think mediation has a huge part to play in the private rented sector and I do believe it gets better outcomes than the court process alone.

Personally I would like to see more eviction specialist companies understand the value of mediation for their clients and that an early resolution, although may not be a financially rewarding the eviction company, may actually see them increase business flow as they do provide the value of alternative dispute resolution.

As a mediator working within the private rented sector I have helped hundreds of landlords and tenants resolve rent arrears, avoid costly and lengthy evictions and help both parties move on from what can be an emotionally draining situation

visit my website for more information    https://www.gothardrowe.com/dispute-resolution

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/mediation-seen-as-form-of-capitulation-moj-poll-finds/5112056.article