RLA : RPI : A case for experts

News from the Residential Property Investor, the bi-monthly magazine for RLA members

other articles from the November / December 2005 issue

A case for experts - November / December 2005

Most RPI readers don’t use a lettings agent - but they should, argues reader Trevor Hulme

Dear Editor,

I read your editorial in the Residential Property Investor (Sep/Oct 2005) and was most perturbed by your finding about landlords, following your reader survey: "You almost certainly don’t use a lettings or managing agent because either you are trying to save costs or you don’t think much of the service on offer."

Besides being a landlord myself, I am also a residential lettings agent and have been for over 16 years. May I say that the costs of letting and managing a property through a professional lettings agent is low, and does not even compare with that charged by an estate agent for selling your property - yet most people use estate agents to sell a property. Property is an expensive asset - it needs to be looked after professionally.

Secondly, as stated by the RLA in a press release, landlords need to cope with a minefield of legislation - these laws (at least 65 as researched by myself) being from 100 years old to newly introduced by Parliament (and becoming more frequent). These are laws which professional letting agents (i.e. qualified members of professional bodies such as NAEA, ARLA, RICS - not the cowboys) know about, as well as a similar number of Statutory Instruments.

A professional lettings agent can guide his landlord clients through this maze of legislation, knows his market for suitable tenants, carries out necessary referencing on prospective tenants, knows how to sort out lettings problems, gives advice on suitability and safety of property to let, etc - all for a very modest fee. However, it seems landlords prefer to save a few bob and risk getting in a mess!

I regularly contribute to the forum on the RLA website. From what I can see, many landlords who post problems on this would certainly have been better to have employed a letting and managing agent to take care of their properties than trying to go it alone.

Finally, it would appear that if a large number of landlords "almost certainly don’t use a lettings or managing agent", it is because they prefer to take an even bigger (and unnecessary) risk.

I would be interested to hear the comments of other agents who are members of the RLA. Trevor Hulme FNAEA CRLM

email address: dynamite@fsmail.net

WHAT THE AGENTS SAY

"Landlords dislike agents partly because they feel agents don’t look after tenants and partly because they can’t see the perceived value.

"We too have researched the market and think that 50% of all lettings do not go to agents. So we teach our franchisees to target this 50% market which the other agents don’t touch.

"A few things knowledgeable landlords have learnt is that you find tenants fastest using the internet; that tenants must be independently credit-checked; that the specialist insurance products - particularly rent guarantee and legal indemnity insurance - are worth buying; and that if you pay close attention to the property the tenants will take care of it. Attending possession hearings at the local courts should be mandatory for all would-be landlords!"

Ian Wilson, managing director, Martin & Co (UK), which has some 100 lettings franchises nationally

"Landlords are wary of using agents because they tend to look upon their property portfolios as their own business and they resent interference. We manage about one-third of the properties that we find tenants for, and we also target classified ads for rental accommodation in local newspapers and ring up the landlords to see if they would be interested in our services.

"Some are resistant but others are happy to talk to us and ask us to go and see them. We usually find that these are landlords who have run into difficulty at some time with tenants and are prepared to consider the benefits of using a professional agent."

Sam Talbot, letting agent, Swanley, Kent

"Landlords who don’t use agents should at the very least join a landlords’ organisation that can advise them and help look after their interests. Landlords should also be in a scheme that protests tenants’ deposits.

"It doesn’t help our cause that letting agents are unregistered. I have no idea why the sector is unregulated: anyone can set up as an agent, take the tenants’ money for a few months, tell the landlords their computers have broken down, and then swan off to a desert island with the money."

Frances Burkinshaw, trainer for the Association of Residential Letting Agents

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