A CGT branch manager mentioned to me recently that she seems to have had a flurry of calls lately from potential landlords who are currently with other letting agents. During the conversations, they all asked her to visit their properties to conduct Market appraisals as they’d had their mortgage lenders explain they would only accept valuations on their properties from ARLA member agents. At our monthly managers meeting, other managers mentioned that they occasionally get potential new landlords mention this as a requirement from mortgage companies, but they feel it is becoming more and more common now.
At a recent ARLA regional meeting, Nik Madan (ARLA president) explained to us that from a recent ARLA survey, only 4% of the UK population knew who ARLA was. This was surprising considering the relevance it has to people in the industry and this coupled with our branch manager’s recent comments about mortgage lenders requirements got me thinking why it is imperative that landlords are only placing their investments in the hands of ARLA qualified staff, and that it is important potential landlords are educated as to what being an ARLA member means. So, for the potential 96% of the population out there wondering what these four letters mean; ARLA, or the ‘Association of Residential Letting Agents’ promotes itself as the only professional self-regulating body to be solely concerned with the letting industry. They provide a professional trading standards platform and redress system for letting agents, tenants and landlords alike.
From a landlord’s point of view, there are so many good reasons why you should choose an ARLA registered agent, when you choose an ARLA registered agent, you can be sure that your agent is covered by the ARLA Client Money Protection Scheme. This means that if your letting agent goes bankrupt or deals on the wrong side of the law, you’re covered for this money.
Furthermore, any ARLA agent must have Professional Indemnity Insurance, which means that as landlord you have peace of mind when it comes to negligence, bad advice and any wrong-doings.
In our (almost daily it now seems) changing industry, ARLA agents are required to be trained and qualified to become a member, as well as following a structured programme of Continuous Professional Development to keep their skills up to date once they join. This means a landlord can be certain that the advice they’re receiving is based on a correct, up-to-date knowledge base.
All ARLA agents voluntarily adhere to the Code of Practice and Rules of Conduct for their professional body, which means they trade to the highest possible professional standards and ARLA members also receive regular newsletters and updates when it comes to changes, or information about lettings in the news. Many ARLA members also attend either the annual conference or regional meetings where there are talks held by prominent ARLA members and property solicitors.
With more and more agents hitting the headlines, and legislative changes for lettings happening all the time, it really is time to protect yourself and consider carefully who is looking after your property. If you decide to go with an ARLA accredited letting agent, you can be certain that it’s not just some chap with very little experience of lettings, who might have seen a business opportunity and decided to set up an office and start advertising.
As always, get in touch with us if you would like any advice.
Angharad Trueman – Operations Manager