Two new Bills have now been separately tabled calling for the regulation of letting agents. Both are due to have second readings in October.
One is from veteran Labour backbencher Sir Alan Meale, and the other from former Labour housing minister John Healey.
Healey’s Bill, introduced this week under the Ten Minute Bill, is called the Letting Agents (Competition, Choice and Standards) Bill 2013-14.
It also seeks to ban letting agents’ fees.
Healey’s Bill seeks: “to establish a national mandatory licensing scheme for letting and managing agents, with established standards and redress for landlords, tenants and leaseholders, and prohibition of letting and management agent fees; to enable local authorities to administer and enforce the scheme; to require that tenants, landlords and leaseholders have written agreements; and to empower local authorities, either alone or in partnership, to trade as letting and managing agents.”
Meale’s Bill is called The Private Landlords and Letting and Managing Agents (Regulation) Bill 2013-2014, and also sets out to regulate landlords.
It says its objects are: “to establish a mandatory national register of private landlords; to introduce regulation of private sector letting agents and managing agents; to establish a body to administer the national register and to monitor compliance with regulations applying to letting agents and managing agents; to require all tenancy agreements entered into with private landlords to take the form of written agreements.”
Writing in political newsletter Central Lobby, Healey says of his Bill: “Politicians haven’t got to grips with the problems that private renting brings. There’s more consumer protection when we buy a fridge or hire a car than when we rent a home. And there’s a growing problem with housing market middlemen who answer to no-one – letting and managing agents.
“The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors has called this sector the property industry’s ‘wild west’.
“The majority of private tenancies are let through agencies, yet absolutely anyone can set up as a letting or managing agent. Unlike even estate agents, there is no system of licensing or standards, while tenants have no legal right to a written tenancy contract and are often hit by huge and hidden upfront fees.”
Healey goes on: “Landlords also report letting and managing agents failing to provide the services expected or hitting them with hidden and excessive charges. The worst drag down the reputation of the rest, which is why many of the legal changes I propose are backed by the associations that represent letting agents, managing agents and landlords as well as by MPs from all parties.
“So there’s a wide recognition that self-regulation has failed and legal regulation is required to improve choice, competition and standards. And people rightly now look to Parliament to make this market better for the millions who have no other option but a private rented home.”
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Comments
"A good lettings agent can be worth their weight in gold for both landlord and tenant. However, there are too many corrupt agents that do not belong to any professional body who are taking advantage of the current gap in regulation, putting consumers at risk.
Choosing the wrong agent can result in tenants encountering all sorts of problems such as lost deposits, broken agreements and excessive charges. What we would like to see is the government taking direct action on this and introducing a single regulatory and redress system for both sales and lettings agents to make sure they are fully accountable. Until this happens, we recommend that tenants use an lettings agent that is a member of a professional organisation, such as RICS"
It is quite straightforward and blunt, if you are not a member of a professional body you are corrupt.
Funny how borrowing client's cash in contravention of RICS rules isn't considered corrupt.
These are just the gullible Muppets who are going the natural thing when spoon fed with excrement; they are regurgitating it word for word.
Try this advanced Google search and see how many times the phrase comes up. It is orchestrated propaganda and it is not hard to work out who the perpetrators and distributors are
"lettings" + "wild West" + "rics"
Try variations with tpo and Shelter in too I think you will be shocked just how widespread this campaign has reached.
You really can’t make it up any more! How dare these people suggest that letting agents are rogues and out of control. Ill-founded comments not supported by facts and head line grabbing politicians with dubious track records make for a dangerous combination. What next………. You can only imagine!
Read the following on John Healey MP; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1235222/MPs-expenses-scandal-Former-defence-minister-goes-2-000-minute-spending-spree-John-Lewis.html
And on Sir Alan Meale; http://www.chad.co.uk/news/local/alan-meale-admits-receiving-expenses-repayment-bill-1-713641
If this is the Wild West call me John Larn!
The RICS are the very last people who should be condemning others for roguery and same goes for our MP's
It really would be interesting to compare the total of all expenses swindled by just 600 or so MP's of all parties against the total of money misappropriated by agents in the same period. Even subsequent to the original expenses scandal last year saw a hybrid expenses scheme of “you rent mine, I'll rent yours" as a cynical means to keep greedy snouts in the trough.
If these labour MP's want to regulate anything to have positive effect on the lettings industry, legislate for a minimum standard of experience for those civil servants briefing MP's. DCLG are simply inept, one only has to look at the two recent conflicting court of appeal decisions stemming from the atrocious deposit legislation to begin to understand how the legislators have not got a clue what they are doing.
I really am at a loss whether this is corruption or incompetence. Whichever it is they are managing to spawn parasite firms that will ultimately compound and ferment the problems into the lawless scenario they are currently portraying to justify their own financial ends.
Once again their laziness in changing the script reveals the how effective and influential the one political lobby organisation is.