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
No comments:
Post a Comment