10 October 2006

Extensive regulation of the rental market not necessary for the self-regulated letting agent and it is not likely to catch avaricious landlords and rogue agents. This was the message to the CML Scotland Annual Conference in Edinburgh today, October 10.. It was delivered by the Business and Compliance Manager for ARLA, the Association of Residential Letting Agents.

Ian Potter said that the advent of the Buy to Let market and changing social attitudes to renting have helped ARLA to push through higher and higher standards among self-regulated letting agents.

However, Mr Potter said that there is also a downside to successful self-regulation.

“It is easy to find reputable letting agents and to check them out,” he said. “But do the real targets of current legislation fall into the net? How do local authorities know where to find the avaricious landlords and the rogue agents?”

Mr Potter reported that local authorities up and down the UK admit privately that they do not know where to start. They rely on checking the self-regulated agent to provide the numbers needed to fulfil their target quotas.

He said that, at the same time, many landlords have no knowledge of regulations and, among those who do understand them, many landlords with Houses in Multiple Occupation have decided to sell rather than comply.

Stressing that much of the regulation for the rental market that is either in place or about to come into place, is both practical and worthwhile, Ian Potter cited Short Assured Tenancies, Fire and Furnishing regulations and Landlord Registration. “Other legislation is all about good practice. Good practice is so obvious that most of the middle market probably exceeds the laid down standards,” he added.”

Mr Potter reminded his audience that the Housing Acts in England and Wales that paved the way for the phenomenon of Buy to Let were almost identical to those in the Scottish Housing Act. “That had been passed eight years before,” he pointed out.

 

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