Today new legislation appeared bringing in further provisions of the Housing and Planning Act, specifically enabling the regulations necessary for banning order to be introduced. Although this legislation comes into force on the 3 November the changes that matter to the market are not likely to appear till April 2018 when banning orders are expected to go live.
We have also had the consultation on making Client Money Protection compulsory launched. It runs till mid December and we will be repsonding on behalf of PRSP members but feel free to have a look yourself as the more voices the better. It can be found here. On Page 15 there is a comment about mandatory training standards but there is not yet any detail about what this standard will be. PRSP are already in talks with an insurance provider to offer CMP insurance as a membership benefit. If the y use the model of “being a member of a trade body” allows you to meeting the criteria we will look for PRSP membership to offer that benefit. There is also a call for evidence about “Protecting Consumers in the letting and managing market” (a way of talking about licensing all letting agents!). This is actually very confused as it mixes in talking about service charges and leaseholders. Para two show sthe level of their confusion because they say, and we quote, “Choosing the right agent is critical, and yet consumers are often disempowered in the process. Those paying and benefitting from the service often have no say as to who their agent is.” This misses the point that the agent works for the landlord or freeholder, not the tenant or leaseholder. Do take the time to read and commmont on this as they desperately need our help to ge this right! We will be submitting evidence on behalf of PRSP.
At the same time the guidance for the new minimum energy performance standards for April 2018 have been launched and can be found here. If you have any properties on bans F and G you need to start understanding if you will be able to let it after April 2018 based on the information in the guidance.
There is also a call for evidence about if local authorities are an effective mechanism at tackling the problems of rogue landlords. This can be found here.
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