Tenants should not choose the cheapest letting agents but look for those endorsed by schemes, warns county agency
Tenants should not choose the cheapest letting agents but look around for a member of a regulatory body or scheme.
That is the message from Stuart Turner, of Morgan Associates, which is a licensed member of the Association of Residential Letting Agents.
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Stuart Turner, marketing manager at Morgan Associates Ltd with his team based at the Rotunda Building, Cheltenham
Unlike estate agents, letting agents do not have to be regulated despite the large amounts of cash they handle.
Morgan Associates are licensed members of ARLA, the National Approved Letting Scheme, a member of The Property Ombudsman and is Safe Agent Fully Endorsed – a mark denoting firms that protect landlords' and tenants' money through client money protection schemes. Each one costs an agency money to join.
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Stuart, who is marketing manager at the Cheltenham letting and management company, said: "Tenants know they can come into the office and speak to an ARLA trained member of staff. Not only do we have to invest as a company in time with staff development but the financial burden is tremendous.
"We are at the highest level of regulation. It costs a lot of money to be a part of these schemes and that's probably why a lot of independent agencies don't do it.
"That's why as a tenant you shouldn't look at the cheapest one. It's about the quality of documentation, for example. A good agent will let you look at a copy of the letting agreement."
New research from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), reveals compulsory regulation of letting agents combined with the introduction of professional standards for all agents could generate over £20million of benefits per year to the UK economy.
The research shows this would be the outcome following an initial set-up cost of £45million.
Stuart agreed this was a necessary step for the industry to prevent cases like Panache Lettings happening, where £13,500 was taken from 13 customers.
"Anything that brings more money to the economy is a good thing," Stuart said. "From my point of view it means more agents doing things the right way and stop cases like Pinnache happening again. It's one of a number of companies in Cheltenham that have done things the wrong way. It could have been worse if they had continued for another couple of months."
Morgan Associates was set up in 1965 and is one of the longest established independent agens in Cheltenham.
â Cheltenham letting agent Ryan Lee will be sentenced next week after lining his pockets with more than £10,000 of customer's money. The 24-year-old took £13,500 from 13 customers of his company Panache Lettings, which was based in Bath Road. He pleaded guilty to 11 charges of engaging in unfair commercial practices, for offences committed between February 2009 and 2010 where he made false representations to tenants. He will be sentenced at Gloucester Crown Court on February 26 after 10 months on the run overseas.
â Turn to our lettings section – page 24.
2 Comments
by Mark_S
Wednesday, February 20 2013, 10:40PM
“Anyone who trusts a letting agency, regardless of whether it pays a fee to a toothless regulatory body, is a fool. Better to assume they will all rip you off and hope that you get lucky. Know your rights, make sure faults are reported and maintenance is carried out, keep records of all communication and take detailed photographs of the property before you move in. Luckily there is now a deposit protection scheme which removes some of the risk of renting but it's not perfect”
by honslknjklyt
Wednesday, February 20 2013, 10:57AM
“All this is is an advert for a regulatory body. Many businesses are blighted by regulatory bodies who are nothing but jobsworths telling others what to do and very very often have no experience in the industry they are regulating. They charge a fortune and of course this is added on to the rents that tenants pay.
I never look for regulatory/approved body status that companies join so they can have a sticker on their website and kudos hoping the public will think they are better, it is balony and and are nothing but businesses set up telling other businesses what to do and making a heck of a lot of money on the back of it. It is taxing through the back door.”