The Government will introduce a Green Paper by mid-May that will require all Landlords in England and Wales to be licensed. It should be noted, that in Scotland, the registration system for all buy to let landlords is already in place; during the first year only 15% of landlords registered, but tougher regulations were introduced, which meant that landlords failing to meet the requirements could face legal proceedings.
The plan is that all Landlords will be expected to pay a licence fee of around £50 in an attempt by the Government to stamp out poor Landlords. With the easy access of buy to let mortgages over the last decade, prior to the current property slump, buy to let mortgages were all to easy to obtain. There is currently an estimated one million private landlords letting out some 2.6 million properties and Government ministers will be looking to introduce this paper to try and stop some of the unscrupulous landlords exploiting their tenants.
There is also some talk of the Government introducing a statutory regulator for Letting Agents.
Although the paper has yet to be introduced it is widely believed that one option is that each landlord would be given a licence number that would appear on all documents related to the letting. This could make it easier for the Inland Revenue to identify tax evaders.
Makes you wonder if the green paper is more for their benefit in catching tax dodgers’ than the interest of the Tenant?
The system would have to be monitored by an independent body to adjudicate tenant’s complaints; the theory being that if the complaint was upheld the landlord could lose his or her letting licence. Landlords would be able to appeal against the body’s decision, but if they lost it could be years before they are allowed to rent out property again.
In addition to the Government trying to tackle the problem of dodgy Landlords, the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) has launched a licencing scheme that requires members to abide by a new code of practice. As of 5th April 2009 all ARLA members will need to be licensed as part of their membership, which includes the following implications:
· Each individual member will hold a gold standard professional qualification relating to lettings
· All members must undertake Continuing Professional Development
· Agents must ensure they have client money protection schemes in place to protect all tenant and landlord funds held by their office
· All clients’ funds require having an annual independent audit
· Agents must have professional indemnity insurance in place
· Agents must sign up to an independent redress scheme
· Agents must abide by a strict code of practice.
None of the above is compulsory for letting agents as standard at the moment.
Its licencing lead will be followed by the National Association of Estate Agents, which is in the process of developing its own scheme, due to be launched later this year.
Speaking on behalf of HCR (www.hcr.co.uk) the UK’s largest independent relocation company who specialise in the rental market, Adrian Leach, Director of Business and Marketing commented:
“We applaud the work being undertaken by ARLA and the NAEA to improve standards. In contrast we are concerned that the Governments motivation might be revenue generation rather than a genuine desire to improve tenants rights”.
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