Member Article

20% of letting agents not signed up to compulsory complaints scheme

• Top agent: “We found two unregistered companies with five minutes Googling, so who is checking?“

One in five letting agents are still not registered with a compulsory complaints scheme launched six months ago to stop them charging excessive fees, not carrying out repair work and using misleading adverts.

Letting agents who did not register with one of three government-approved redress schemes – designed to give people in rented homes a recognised place to take their complaints– by the start of October 2014 face fines of £5000.

But statistics from Citizen’s Advice this week show that one in five letting agents are still not members of any redress scheme, despite membership being mandatory for six months.

The figures come after research from North East-based sales and lettings firm KIS showed that 99.5% of tenants are not aware the scheme exists.

The redress schemes - run by the Property Ombudsman, Ombudsman Services Property and the Property Redress Scheme – assess renter complaints and can award compensation where appropriate.

KIS is a member of The Property Redress Scheme – but not a single respondent in KIS’ survey could name a single one of the schemes.

Property expert Ajay Jagota, founder and Chief Executive Officer of the North East’s most innovative sales and lettings business KIS, has reservations about the redress scheme.

The property firm is famous for being the first letting agents in the UK to abolish deposits, replacing them with a one-of-a-kind landlord insurance policy offering guaranteed rent, deposit replacement, legal assistance and round the clock third party emergency home repairs

Ajay said: “When the redress scheme launched, my biggest fear was that the scheme was about as well known as the winner of The Voice. My fear now is that no-one is even bothering to make sure companies have even signed up.

“It’s not hard to find agents who don’t seem to be members. We found two apparently unregistered companies with less than five minutes Googling, so the big question is, who is checking on these companies?

“I’m not even aware of a single letting agent being prosecuted for not being a member of an apparently compulsory scheme, and have written to the Ministry of Justice to ask if any have.

“It just feels like the entire redress scheme is about acting rather than taking action, regulation for regulations sake – not renter’s sake.”

KIS manage properties for landlords in every corner of the North East from branches across Tyne and Wear, and were named Letting Agent of the Year in the 2013 Landlord and Letting Awards, and were again named finalist in 2014. The firm expanded into residential sales in 2014.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ajay Jagota .