ARLA "extremely disappointed" with government
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The Association of Residential Letting Agents are “extremely disappointed” that the government has abandoned plans to regulate the private rented sector.
The announcement came in House of Commons questioning and ARLA says the Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, is risking the improvement of standards in the sector.
Ian Potter, operations manager of ARLA, says: “We are extremely disappointed with the Housing Minister’s decision to scrap the previous Government’s plans for the regulation of letting agents.
“This move risks seriously hampering the improvement of standards in the Private Rented Sector, the sector’s reputation, and the fundamental role it plays in the wider housing market as well as failing to protect the consumer who has nowhere to go when there is service failure or fraud.”
He added: “Currently, any person or organisation can become a letting agent. Until that is changed via national regulation, unprofessional, unqualified and unethical operators will continue to exist, to the detriment and expense of consumers and the market as a whole.
“The only option now is for the consumer to look for an agent which has signed up to voluntary redress and has client money protection; by doing so they would at least have a degree of protection not offered by many agents operating on the high street.
“We note however that the Minister has not closed the door and look forward to the opportunity to have meaningful dialogue with him in the future.”
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Readers' comments (1)
Joe Murinio | 11 Jun 2010 9:21 am
Havent we seen what regulations do still?
It merely gets rid of small time crooks & replaces them with high flyer white collar thieves. Look at most the regulated industries, the risk transfer has been from common working man to sophisticated head of business - which one is harder to spot?
Higher positioned crooks always end up costing us more than what the small guys do - Regulation is a simple way of shunning industry's own responsibilities which is not the answer. so no thanks to regulations, buyers of products please be more beware - most people havent a clue of whats going on in industry, more rules on equal confusion - doesnt help buyers.
A simple test, when was the first insurance act passed, what was the reason behind it? we all have insurance of some form but how many know this????
Get my point?
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