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Letting agents must be 'taught how to deal with poorer tenants'
Tuesday 27th February 2024
Robyn Hall
Generation Rent outlines framework for qualifications for letting agents as the House of Lords looks at the regulation of property agents.
Letting agents dealing with low-income tenants and those on welfare support should be qualified to help promote understanding and stem the rise in homelessness, the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee heard yesterday.
Speaking at the Lords' inquiry into regulation of property agents, Conor O'Shea, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at Generation Rent, told the committee that a good framework for qualifications for letting agents already existed.
"There are mandatory units of their letting and managing residential property course. The first one is letting residential properties; property standards for the residential property; tenancy management for the residential property and ending tenancies of the residential property and a fifth one which is professional practice for letting agents.
"They are the five units you have to pass. We think that is a decent shape for a potential qualification could look like."
But he added: "There is one thing we would like to add to that is supporting of low income-tenants - especially when it comes to homelessness and discriminating against tenants who are on welfare support.
"We believe there should be one person in each letting agent branch who should be qualified to work with low-income tenants."
O'Shea had earlier told the committee, Chaired by Baroness Taylor of Bolton, of tenant's general frustrations of dealing with letting agents at three crucial points: before a tenancy begins, during the tenancy and at the end of the tenancy.
One issue was mass viewings, where tenants have to view a property with two or more groups. Bidding wars were also an issue where tenants were forced to offer more than the advertised price while agents asking for multiple months' rent, sometimes, four, six and 12 months in advance, also irked.
Asked by Lord Clement Jones what a successful regulator would look like O'Shea outlined an easy complaints process and how problems would be solved; tenant safety and ensuring best practice would be addressed.
He also advocated for an ethical code of practice what would ensure 'no DSS' policies were enforced as well as highlighting the commission some letting agents receive from plugging zero deposit schemes.
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