29th
Sep 2017
A private rented sector trade body is demanding that the government must ensure that its mandatory policy for agents to disclose their upfront fees is followed to the letter.
In May 2015 the government made it compulsory for all UK letting agents to release details of their fees that they charge tenants and landlords in such a manner that they can be openly seen in their offices and websites, this was included in the Consumer Rights Act. Failure to do so would result in agents facing fines of up to £5,000; however the government is seemingly unable to enforce this, with seemingly little apparent compliance from the majority agents.
The National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) has statistics that shows since the regulation in May 2015 was introduced when agents had to show their fees as a legal requirement, a staggering 93% of councils have not even achieved one conviction. Only three penalty notices have been sent to offending agents throughout the whole of the UK.
According to 59% of councils they dismiss upholding the legislation as of no real importance to them and 45% have admitted that they only take any form of action if it is reported to them and with just three penalty notices across the UK in over two years, their activity is questionable.
The trade body wants the government to become proactive in forcing agent compliancy in displaying their fees prior to the banning of all fees at a later date.
It is urging the government that it comes down hard on agents who do not make their list of fees easy to find and they should face fines of up to £30,000, rather than the present £5,000 to hammer home the need for compliancy.
A spokesperson for the trade body, said: "Laws without proper enforcement serve only to let tenants and good landlords down. Rather than pressing ahead with plans for more legislation in the sector to ban letting agent fees at an unknown time in the future, Ministers could achieve greater and earlier impact by using the powers they already have to improve transparency and introduce far tougher penalties for agents found to be breaching the law. This would send a clear message that enforcing bodies will not tolerate any letting agents flouting the law."
Richard Merrick of PIMS, said: "No matter how much legislation is introduced it is all down to the councils to enforce, if the government does increase the fines then perhaps it may become their 'priority'."
Richard added: "However there could be the other side of the coin that agents are making their list of fees widely available....any comments are welcome."
News Archive »