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News: Former housing minister launches Bill to crack down on agents

Thu, 04 Jul 13

Two new Bills have now been separately tabled calling for the regulation of letting agents. Both are due to have second readings in October.

One is from veteran Labour backbencher Sir Alan Meale, and the other from former Labour housing minister John Healey.

Healey’s Bill, introduced this week under the Ten Minute Bill, is called the Letting Agents (Competition, Choice and Standards) Bill 2013-14.

It also seeks to ban letting agents’ fees.

Healey’s Bill seeks: “to establish a national mandatory licensing scheme for letting and managing agents, with established standards and redress for landlords, tenants and leaseholders, and prohibition of letting and management agent fees; to enable local authorities to administer and enforce the scheme; to require that tenants, landlords and leaseholders have written agreements; and to empower local authorities, either alone or in partnership, to trade as letting and managing agents.”

Meale’s Bill is called The Private Landlords and Letting and Managing Agents (Regulation) Bill 2013-2014, and also sets out to regulate landlords.

It says its objects are: “to establish a mandatory national register of private landlords; to introduce regulation of private sector letting agents and managing agents; to establish a body to administer the national register and to monitor compliance with regulations applying to letting agents and managing agents; to require all tenancy agreements entered into with private landlords to take the form of written agreements.”

Writing in political newsletter Central Lobby, Healey says of his Bill: “Politicians haven’t got to grips with the problems that private renting brings. There’s more consumer protection when we buy a fridge or hire a car than when we rent a home. And there’s a growing problem with housing market middlemen who answer to no-one – letting and managing agents.

“The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors has called this sector the property industry’s ‘wild west’.

“The majority of private tenancies are let through agencies, yet absolutely anyone can set up as a letting or managing agent. Unlike even estate agents, there is no system of licensing or standards, while tenants have no legal right to a written tenancy contract and are often hit by huge and hidden upfront fees.”

Healey goes on: “Landlords also report letting and managing agents failing to provide the services expected or hitting them with hidden and excessive charges. The worst drag down the reputation of the rest, which is why many of the legal changes I propose are backed by the associations that represent letting agents, managing agents and landlords as well as by MPs from all parties.

“So there’s a wide recognition that self-regulation has failed and legal regulation is required to improve choice, competition and standards. And people rightly now look to Parliament to make this market better for the millions who have no other option but a private rented home.”


See also: Home Letting Guide, Home Renting Guide and Letting Agents

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