Agency

ARLA protects consumer interests with new licensing scheme

The Association of Residential Lettings Agents (ARLA) has introduced a new licensing scheme, requiring its members to meet certain standards of practice. This follows a survey in which ARLA discovered that many consumers assume that letting agents are subject to such regulation, and that 95% of consumers believe that letting agents should be licensed.
From today, all ARLA members will need to be licensed as part of their membership. This means that each member will be required to:

• undertake Continuing Professional Development
• ensure that all tenant and landlord funds held by their office are protected by client money protection schemes
• have an annual audit of their client funds
• have professional indemnity insurance in place
• sign up to an independent redress scheme
• abide by a strict code of practice.

None of these requirements are currently ordinarily compulsory for letting agents, despite these being areas in which consumers most suffer. Under the scheme, money owed to clients will be protected even where the letting agency goes out of business.
ARLA has 3,500 member offices across the UK, ranging from single office practices to multi-branch companies. The licensing scheme means that each member will hold a gold standard professional qualification relating to lettings. It will establish the highest national standards for letting agents.

A similar scheme in relation to estate agents will be introduced by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) later this year. The National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) already manages an accreditation system focussing on lettings and management agents in the private rented sector.
The Times has also independently said that the government is to bring in a registration scheme for private landlords in England and Wales, whereby landlords who do not keep their property in good condition could be removed from the register and have their licence revoked.

ARLA News Report, 5th May 2009