27th
Aug 2017
Source: newstatesman.com
Newham council has just announced that it will be launching the first letting agents rating scheme to help tenants and landlords avoid being taken in by rogue agents.
The council has passed plans to show the ratings of all letting agents in their borough by using a star system of marking from zero -worst, to 5 stars - best and the full list will be uploaded onto their website.
The council's aim is that any landlords or new tenants will be able to study the list and scores to choose the best agents within the borough. Details have been recorded for each agent such as not refunding deposits, holding back income from their clients, charging sky high fees and failure in dealing with complaints.
The agents' ratings have been taken from the Newham's Fair Lettings Project which has audited all letting agents over the last two years.
The council awarded the stars based on agent's performance levels of practice for, best service to landlords and tenants, compliance with the sector's legislation and overall customer satisfaction or complaints' feedback.
The council states that since the project began overall levels of standards had vastly improved and of the 109 agents 71% are three stars and higher, however 29% - 43 agencies are not following good standards of practise and are under three stars.
As soon as agents are informed of their 'marks' they are allowed twenty one days to appeal the rating if they believe it is unjustified.
Once the appeal period is reached the council will then publish the full listings' table of agents with their star ratings.
The council will advise potential tenants and landlords to be careful by only dealing with agents who have three or more stars.
A council spokesperson said: “The extreme demand in the private rented property sector is being exploited by some unscrupulous letting agents, who rip off landlords and tenants. The law gives us limited powers to act against these cowboys, but by scrutinising their activity, and sharing information with our residents and landlords, the ratings should see the unscrupulous agents pushed out of business.”
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