Landlords urged to only deal with ‘safe’ letting agents

May 17th, 2012

Letting agents are urging landlords to make sure they only do business with firms offering a money protection scheme.

Firms signed up to the SAFEagent scheme are highlighting that landlords and tenants risk losing thousands of pounds in rents and deposits if an agent outside a money protection scheme shuts.

The most recent firm to go bust in Canterbury owes landlords and tenants more than £410,000.

Receivers have warned creditors are unlikely to see any of their cash.

Read the full story at Property118

RentPro property management software allows you to easily track deposits that are lodged with a deposit protection scheme.

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UK landlords don’t believe that deposit schemes help them, survey shows

April 9th, 2012

A UK wide survey has found virtually no landlords think that deposit schemes are designed in their favour with 54% believing they favour tenants and 35% thinking neither benefit.

Letting agents also largely mirrored that sentiment with only 20% thinking that the schemes, in their current format at least, favoured landlords and 52% saying that the balance has been tipped in favour of tenants. A further 22% felt that the schemes benefit neither party.

Read the full story at Propertywire.com

RentPro property management software allows you to keep track that deposits are protected within 30 days, and it also allows you to keep all information in relation to inventories and any repairs that are carried out on the property so should a dispute arise you will have all the information you require to hand.

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Scottish government approves first ever tenancy deposit protection scheme

April 6th, 2012

Today, tenants, landlords and letting agents are a step closer to guaranteed deposit protection, with the Scottish Government announcing it has approved its first tenancy deposit protection scheme, The Letting Protection Service Scotland.

The scheme has been given the go ahead to launch on July 2nd. The approval follows The Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011, which came into force on 7th March 2011 and were introduced to tackle problems faced by tenants, including unfairly held deposits, and to speed up the return of deposits.  Continue reading »

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Helping agents make the grade

March 23rd, 2012

RentPro rental property management software can assist you with your obligations for protecting clients money, handling tenants deposits, ensuring legal obligations in regards to safety checks are valid, as well as allowing you to keep in contact with clients and tenants and keeping a record of all correspondence.

Lettings complaints rose by more than a quarter last year, reinforcing the belief in the industry that standard need to be raised, according to the annual report from The Property Ombudsman. Continue reading »

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Lettings agent complaints up 26%

March 15th, 2012

Following another year in which lettings complaints increased, property ombudsman, Christopher Hamer, is renewing his call for standards to be raised across the lettings industry.

In 2011, the ombudsman’s office dealt with 7,641 letting enquiries, with the figure up 26% on 2010.

Read the full story at HomeMove.co.uk

The highest number of complaints involved poor communication, queries over tenants’ deposits, and the maintenance of rental property.  RentPro property management software enables you to communicate with your tenants via both email and text messages, keep track of deposits to ensure they are lodged with a deposit protection scheme in time and also fully manages maintenance through from the issue being raised to ensuring the payments are received from landlords and made to suppliers.

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Ombudsman takes legal advice on compulsory regulation of letting agents

March 6th, 2012

Regulation should be considered to protect the consumer, especially in relation to client money protection.

The Property Ombudsman scheme has taken legal advice on how letting agents could be compulsorily regulated, saying that voluntary bodies are not the regulators ‘some imagine them to be’.

There were also criticisms of the lack of uniformity in the way client money is protected – where, indeed, it is regulated at all. Continue reading »

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Agents warned over illegality in taking tenants’ money too early

February 28th, 2012

Agents in student cities and towns where it is commonplace for agreements to be signed up to ten months in advance, with deposits, holding fees, referencing fees and, commonly, the first month’s rent taken, have been warned that they could be breaking the law.
This is because the 2004 Housing Act says that all and any money paid in advance of a tenancy and which could or should be returned to the tenant is defined as a deposit. Continue reading »

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Comparing Tenancy Deposit Protection Costs for Landlords

February 1st, 2012

Fantastic table of comparison on the various tenancy deposit protection schemes from Property 118

As a new tenancy deposit protection scheme opens for business, some landlords may be confused over the costs and benefits each offers.

To help compare the schemes with each other, here’s a look at the costs and some other important points to consider:

Read the full story at Property118

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