Letting agents should have to sit exams, says ARLA

The Association of Residential Letting Agents has demanded that all letting agents should be required to take a professional qualification before they are allowed to set up shop.
 
Ian Potter, operations manager of ARLA, said the time had come to raise awareness about unregulated lettings agents. He said many have had no formal training and may be completely unqualified, and they are also immune from any form of disciplinary action for misconduct.
 
He said: “The fact that at the moment anybody can work as a lettings agent is ludicrous and, more to the point, dangerous, as it may create great risks for consumers in the current climate.
 
“We need to ensure the standards of the lettings profession are upheld without exception. This means compulsory training and qualifications for anyone wishing to let a property on behalf of another, as well as client money protection, professional indemnity insurance and audited client bank accounts. Many agents hold clients’ funds mixed in with their own business funds and this offers no protection if the agent’s business fails.”
 
He was speaking after the Tenancy Deposit Protection Service declared that it would no longer guarantee the deposits of unregulated lettings agents after April (see separate story).
 
Potter said: “It’s high time the Government got off the fence and demanded regulation for the rental market and the compulsory licensing of agents. Setting professional standards for the industry is the first step to eliminating the cowboys.”
 
ARLA plans to introduce its own licensing scheme for letting agents later this year, which its members will be obliged to join.