Landlords need an agent who is safe as houses
Landlords have been warned to choose extremely carefully when selecting a letting agent…. or face hefty fines.
Why? Because not all letting agents are the same.
The warning came from Landlord Licensing and Defence, a company offering licensing and compliance advice to landlords and agents. Unsurprisingly, it featured in a recent article in the trade press.
Their compliance expert, Phil Turtle says: “We have lots of experience in dealing with agents who simply do not know the law when it comes to licensing a landlord’s property and other important aspects, including fire regulations.
Hard to believe
“There’s a danger of a landlord switching to an incompetent agent who will not be much help because agents don’t always understand the law and regulations. Some agents, as a result, get landlords into trouble and face fines.
“That might be hard to believe, but there’s no doubt that half of the landlord clients we deal with have been dropped into trouble with local authorities by their letting agent.
“The bottom line to appreciate is that while a letting agent will be taking a slice of the monthly rent, if there are any problems such as not being properly licensed with the local authority, then it will be for the landlord to resolve – and to pay the fines and, potentially, face a Rent Repayment Order.”
Here at Kings Group, however, we’d humbly like to point out that when landlords do business with us, they are dealing with a reputable and professional business.
But we also know, after 25 years’ experience in the industry, that every landlord should pick the right agent to act for them. We invest heavily in training, marketing and technology to make sure that we are able to offer our landlords the best possible service and ultimately get maximum exposure for their property so we can secure them the best tenant.
Administrative service
We also strongly believe that regulation and affiliation to the industry bodies is paramount to keeping up with legislation, best practice and training. That is why we are members of the National Federation of Property Professionals for both estate agency and lettings. On top of that, all of our offices have at least one member of staff that has taken the Technical Award Qualification and each office has an individually registered Member of the Association of Residential Letting Agents.
The difference between ourselves and some of the other letting agents is that we understand that this is a long-term relationship and besides offering a unique fully-managed service to our landlords, we pay for ongoing legal advice which enables us to always keep our landlords updated with current legislation at all times. If your property is an HMO (House in Multiple Occupation) or is in a Selective Licensing Area, Kings Lettings are able to offer an administrative service to apply for these licences on your behalf. We even offer a bespoke service for landlords based overseas for more than six months at a time – for whom special rules apply.
We do our utmost to provide the most comprehensive and professional service through all of our offices. And don’t just take our word for it. Here at Kings Lettings what we want to see is happy clients. This makes winning the highly-regarded ESTAS Awards extra special. These are not awards that are voted for inside the industry, they are judged according to customer feedback gathered from over 30,000 questionnaires – feedback from landlords, tenants, buyers and sellers.
Over the years, Kings Lettings has performed consistently well at the ESTAS. Our customers have nominated us for many awards and those we have won include Best Agent Office and Best Letting Agent Office.
Our customers are our judge and jury and we are proud to serve them.
