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TODAY'S OTHER NEWS

Letting agents welcome government’s pledge to ‘regulate’ the PRS

The Conservative Party’s pledge to give tenants greater rights as part of a regulatory shake-up of the private rented sector has been warmly welcomed by letting agents.

The communities secretary Sajid Javid used his speech at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Sunday to announce that all landlords will have to become members of an ombudsman redress scheme in a bid to improve the dispute resolution system for renters.

He also proposed that legislation be introduced to ensure all letting agents are registered, while landlords will be offered incentives to provide long-term tenancies of at least 12 months in order to offer tenants greater security.

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David Cox, the CEO of ARLA Propertymark (formally Association of Residential Letting Agents), commented: “After 20 years of our campaigning falling on deaf ears, we’re very pleased the government has taken the decision to regulate the private rented sector.

“This will be the single greatest step forward in a generation, in terms of consumer protection for private tenants, and will do more to clean up the image of the industry than the hundreds of smaller laws and pieces of legislation introduced over the last 20 years.

“However, regulation can take different forms and we need to see the detail of proposal to be confident that it will be effective for tenants and landlords.”

Isobel Thomson, CEO of the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS), also described the measures in Javid’s speech as “very welcome news”, and insisted that it offers “clear confirmation” that the government is adopting a “coherent, strategic approach” to the PRS for the benefit of consumers.

She added: “NALS and the Fair Fees Forum called earlier this year for both the fee ban and introduction of mandatory client money protection to be framed within wider regulation as the only way to ensure that all agents meet the same requirements and consumers are protected. We are delighted that government has listened. We look forward to engaging with government to take forward all of the measures they have announced.”

Javid’s proposal to also consult on the introduction of a housing court to give tenants access to faster, more effective justice if they are mistreated or standards are not met, has also been welcomed – by landlords.

David Smith, policy director at the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), said: “We called for housing courts to speed up and improve access to justice for good tenants and landlords as well as for tax incentives to support good landlords.

“This is a welcome sign that the Government is ready to listen to practical proposals from the RLA to improve the working of the sector and encourage the majority of responsible landlords and tenants who want to and are doing the right thing.”

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    i doubt the new courts will be available to landlords--this is yet more evidence that the faux-tories are blue-labor

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    and for arla to comment as above is staggering--agents are the greater problem

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    Hi, so now we know where we stand, they all have their snout in the trough. Letting Agents who live off our backs have joined the anti-private LL band wagon, just avoid them & don’t use them giving us the ability to offer Tenants a more reasonable rent.

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    • 03 April 2019 10:05 AM

    LL are consumers as well so will there be redress for LL against rogue tenants! ?...........................No thought NOT!!
    You know the tenants that won't pay rent and won't comply with S8 or 21 and have to be evicted which costs fortunes in losses.

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    Hi you can’t be serious how on earth are they going to give the Tenants more rights. They have them all already, it’s only the Tenants or the Courts that can end a Tenancy and now they want to make Tenancies without end at the discretion of the Tenant. So what more rights can you give them unless you are going to give them our Property but they wouldn’t want that either as we wouldn’t be around to Molly cuddle them.

  • Suzy OShea

    What a load a load of 'brown nosing' rubbish from ARLA. Glad I don't belong to this traitorous organisation! Have they forgotten who they are supposed to be helping and representing?

    Furthermore, I can't think of a single responsible landlord who would not be happy to give his new tenants a one year contract! So what is all this nonsense! its just the f*cking Conservatives trying to make political capital out of a desperately needed resource - housing! And the main reason for this housing crisis is both the lack of investment in social housing by both local and central governments. Central government is even more to blame because their austerity budget cuts to local governments have left them so poorly funded that they can't even maintain the estates of social housing stocks they have. Thus, these estates fall into such disrepair that they can only be demolished and sold to property developers - who will make far less provision for social housing

  • Suzy OShea

    The damned conservative governments have caused this housing crisis, their speculating friends have profited from it, and no doubt donated to the party for the privilege, and now the Conservative party, desperate for votes after nigh on a decade of misrule is scapegoating the private rented sector for their own evil policies! of neglect!

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    I agree with everything you say Suzy, but a Corbyn Government would be much worse.
    They hate private landlords even more and rent caps etc will undoubtedly follow, together with a raft of property taxes.

     
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