On the 1st of October all letting agents must be signed up to one of three property redress schemes – however less than two weeks ago official figures showed around 40% of agents in England are yet to sign up.
Does that mean they’ll be a flurry of activity today? The potential £5,000 fine and possibility of being excluded from the industry seem like incentive enough to get registered.
However I’m not so sure agents will be falling over themselves to sign up, as an article published today by www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk suggests that due to cuts in the trading standards authority there may not be enough manpower to regulate the redress system effectively.
In my opinion it seems a bit of a mess. It’s so often the case in the letting industry that things come to pass without sufficient thought being put into how they will be governed once up and running. People in power love buzzwords “Property redress scheme” or “licensing and accreditation” – I have no doubt their intentions are good and they genuinely want to improve the industry but saying something is happening and making it happen are very different things.
Like any business here at InventoryBase announcing a new feature is always the last part of a development process. If we announce something to our industry we better be sure it’s ready to go on the day. It feels a bit like the people in power announce things and then start to figure out how to achieve them – which only serves to annoy and hinder everyone in the industry they’re trying to improve.
These are just my musings on the subject and I’d be interested to hear what everyone else in the industry has to say. Official figures will be released after the deadline tomorrow and I’m guessing the whole industry won’t be onboard – so ultimately what’s the point?