Follow us on Twitter @TheNeg LETTINGS CAMPAIGN Stop the exploitation!
A campaign to stop letting agents charging “unlawful and exploitative” fees has been launched by a housing charity. Scotland has an estimated 500 letting agents, involved in around 150,000 private lets each year. According to Shelter Scotland, 90 per cent of agents it contacted demand fees from those seeking a new home. Prospective tenants can face fees for credit checks, reference checks or even for checking a property’s inventory. Shelter Scotland believes such
fees are unlawful under Section 82 of the Rent (Scotland) Act 1984, with an investigation by the charity revealing people were facing charges of as much as £180 from some agents. Its new website, part of a
Reclaim Your Fees campaign, provides advice on what letting agents can and cannot lawfully charge for, as well as sample letters for those seeking a refund and information on how to take a case to the small claims court.
METROPIX COMPETITION
‘Speed Floor Plan Drawing’ winners announced
Throughout March and into April, Metropix, the supplier of floor plan based products to the residential estate agency market, invited property professionals from across the UK to take part in a ‘Speed Floor-Plan Drawing’ competition; the game Metropix believed the organisers of London 2012 mistakenly overlooked! The winner of the
competition, and officially the ‘UK’s Fastest Speed Floor-Plan Drawing Champion’, is Stephanie Dunn-Fox (pictured) from Findahome Online Estate & Letting Agents (http://www.
findahomeonline.co.uk). She logged the impressive time of 2:48:77, illustrating the speed at which a floor plan can be produced. Stephanie has won the Gold prize of the new Apple iPad, which is winging its ways to the Findahome Online offices as you read this.
Shelter
Graeme Brown
Scotland director Graeme Brown said, “Over 272,650 families and individuals in Scotland call the private rented sector home, and that
number is rising. That some letting agents, established and new, are routinely ripping off tenants by charging extortionate and unjustified up-front fees is shocking and, quite simply, exploitative.” He added, “They are not only ripping off people who need a roof over their head and who, in many cases, have little or no choice but to pay up, but they are also undermining the work of good letting agents who offer a fair deal to tenants.” Graeme went on to call for legislation to be clarified. For more information, visit Shelter Scotland’s Reclaim Your Fees website.
MARKET VIEW PRO
Agents prove they’re number one at the click of a button
TheNews
Runners-up are Jonny Orme from Martel Maides, who logged a time of 2:53:63 and wins the Silver prize of an iPod Nano; and closely following in the Bronze position – with a photo finish! – is Nathan Patterson from Manning Stainton, who recorded 2:53:72 and takes home an iPod Shuffle. Brian Farrell, MD of Metropix
comments, “Whilst the winning time was an impressive 2:48:77mins we would like to thank all those that participated, of which, 94 per cent achieved times of less than five minutes to draw a 3-bedroomed house!”
The latest upgrade to Market View Pro creates optimised market share reports in seconds – another vital instruction-winning tool from Digital Property Group The optimise tool provides an instruction-winning boost by showing where an agent is truly ‘Number One’. It works by trawling millions of property details across its 13,200 branches for properties sold or let, for sale or to let, their area and the number of bedrooms and price to establish where an agent leads their market. The end result is a branded vendor or landlord document which clearly displays the agent’s market share versus an anonymous set of competitors. Rob Phillipson, Head of Business Services for DPG, comments, “Proving past success is an incredibly powerful factor when it comes to earning the confidence and trust of a potential new client, so being able to prove you’re the leading agent in a highly competitive area is essential to securing new business. Our latest upgrade allows agents to do this in seconds.” Already used in over 2,000 branches, this latest Market View Pro addition is designed to help estate and letting agents win more instructions, as well as retain challenging vendors and landlords. Rob Phillipson continues,
“Vendors and landlords will always seek the most successful agent for the property they’re looking to market. The ability to produce independent evidence to
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support a claim to be, say, the number one agent for four bedroom houses between £500,000 and £800,000 has tremendous value for our clients; agents are very busy people, and the fact that this can be achieved at the touch of a button is the icing on the cake. We’re handing agents a more granular view of their performance every day, enabling better-informed conversations when pitching for new instructions or retaining existing business; knowledge, after all, is power.” The sentiment was echoed
DPG’s Rob Phillipson
by Roger Sleight, owner of Churchill Independent Estate Agents who use Market View Pro across their three branches. “Understanding your market position is a natural obsession for most agents, me included. At the click of a button, I can see how we compare to our nearest competitors and pinpoint
where we’re the leading agent. “We use this to great effect to win new business as it’s hard for a vendor to ignore the agent that has sold more of a particular property than any other. The first instruction paid for Market View Pro for the next 13 years!” Market View Pro launched last October as the only daily service of its kind. It attracts over 15,000 monthly visits and sends close to 260,400 emails a month to its subscribers.
TheNegotiator l June 2012 l 9
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