LETTINGSnews
accreditation
Back office provider gets the NALS ‘tick’
The National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS), has announced its new designated ‘NALS approved
service provider’ offering which offers recognition to back office service providers, enabling agents to comply with NALS strict criteria in client accounting and save on costs. The Letting Bureau is the first to achieve designated status. Caroline Pickering, Chair of
NALS said, “We are delighted to be able to offer back-office service providers the opportunity to gain this designation. This growing industry is a vital part of the market and we look forward to helping these firms to move forward and enable their clients to become NALS licensed.” “A number of firms now use outsourcing firms. The services this type of provider might offer include client accounting and/or deposit protection, referencing or
legiSlation No more micro managing HMOs
Landlords and councils will no longer be faced with bureaucracy aimed at micro-
managing rented housing, Housing Minister Grant Shapps has confirmed. The Minister laid new
regulations that could cut as many as 8,500 planning applications from the system, freeing up councils to focus on local priorities. Currently landlords have to submit a planning application to rent their properties to unrelated tenants – Houses in Multiple Occupation. New regulations will mean that councils only have to use this power where they know high concentrations of shared homes are a problem.
Grant Shapps said, “Councils understand their local area best, and they don’t need burdensome rules that assume housing issues in every town, village and hamlet are exactly the same. I am also committed to safeguard the supply of rented housing – shared homes are vital for people who want to live and work in towns and cities, and are important to the economy. “That’s why I’m giving
councils greater flexibility to manage shared homes in their local area. Where there are local issues with shared homes, councils will have all the tools they need to deal with the problem – but they will avoid getting bogged down in pointless applications, and landlords won’t be put off renting shared homes where they are needed.”
full property management. The issue has been that if a lettings firm outsourced elements of the service they offer to landlords and tenants, the firm could not gain recognition by NALS.
“The industry is changing and so is the way in which agents choose to operate. This new designation will potentially bring cost savings to lettings firms in NALS with no dilution of standards; instead of a firm supplying an annual accountant’s report to NALS, if the firm’s client money accounting/deposit protection is outsourced to a NALS approved service provider, the provider fulfills the compliance requirement in this particular area rather than the agent.” Agents join Letting Bureau to provide landlords and tenants with a standard and quality of service
‘The way agents choose to operate is changing.’
that matches the standards set by NALS. Letting Bureau makes this possible by providing an impressive online office and document management and client accounting system. A key point is that the system requires no capital investment in hardware and software and there are no heavy annual maintenance charges. Jenny Markham, head of Letting Bureau, says, “We have seen demand for our services go from strength to strength so gaining NALS recognition of our services made good business sense. Achieving the NALS ‘tick’ means we can promote ourselves to our customers, and confirm that we adhere to strict guidelines and are a reputable organisation that they should want to partner with. “My members provide a better service because they are free to concentrate on the front office tasks of letting properties, providing landlord and tenant care – always best dealt with at agent and branch level.”
tenantS Smokers face
housing crisis The growing intolerance of landlords towards smokers is causing a housing crisis for smokers,
according to research from
Easyroommate.co.uk. 580,000 UK smokers depend
on flatsharing for their accommodation but 67 per cent are living in non-smoking accommodation. Three years on from the smoking ban, only 7 per cent of landlords are happy to let people smoke in their properties. With space for only 194,000 smokers in flatshare accommodation across the UK, 387,000 smokers are left out in the cold. Jonathan Moore, director,
Easyroommate.co.uk says, “With smoking in pubs and restaurants off limits, the last refuge for smoking – at home – is being eroded.”
inSUrance
Fraud rising in lettings
Fraud is rising. Rogue landlords and cowboy agents dominate letting industry news, but tenant fraud, a symptom of this economic climate, is likely to increase. “It is an unfortunate fact that not enough attention is being paid to the problem of fraudulent tenants. Front office staff may take tenants at face value,” said Michael Portman, MD of Let Insurance Services. “but we recommend that staff have a checklist that includes obtaining ID documents and proof of current residency at an early stage of the tenancy application and to be alert for anything possibly unusual.” Identity fraud has increased
by 22 per cent in the first six months of this year with 50,000 victims. Association of British Insurers’ statistics show 122,000 fraudulent insurance claims last year, an increase of 14 per cent. Anecdotal evidence also
shows a rising number of deliberate fraud cases, where tenants fill out tenancy application forms as they move from property to property with no intention of paying the rent. “It is an understandable problem faced by every lettings agent. It is natural not to assume the worst in people and to give them the benefit of the doubt. “Our referencing service includes a Potential for Fraud Indicator and, if there are any doubts, agents can talk through applications with Let Insurance Services staff. They are removed from personal contact with the prospective tenant and are trained to spot anomalies, oddities and the potential for fraud in tenancy applications.”
PROPERTYdrum OCTOBER 2010 39
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68