Ex-President elect resigns from NAEA

NAEA's Solicitors finally respond but still dodging the issue. Its not difficult. Why did you hold a hearing in direct contravention of your own rules? On-going court case between the complainant and the member - NO hearing can take place - Simples?! Obviously not.

• 08 July 2010 15:42 PM

Chris Wood: You weren't referring to me in your last paragraph, were you? If so - you couldn't be further from the truth...

• 06 July 2010 09:56 AM

Many people have commented on here and sent me direct emails of support and thank you for those.
Stonehenge, I understand your cynicism but you should know that I served my ‘sentence’ of a temporary suspension of membership and have remained a member for the best part of a year since then. I resigned my position as a board member and President Elect to save the Association and its members from embarrassment in the press.
Naively, I believed I was protecting the members and the Association; in fact, all I achieved was to allow those at the centre of the clique to get away with a blatant abuse of rules and power. Like previous President, Stewart Lilley and a number of other senior members of the Association, I had held grave concerns over the direction of the Association/ Federation for some time. I had hoped to use my Presidency to drive forward reforms that would have helped members. I was denied that opportunity.
As a senior member of the NAEA team and board member, I was well known to be no shrinking violet in expressing my opinions and it is to my shame that I allowed myself to be talked out of calling an emergency board meeting to raise some of my grave concerns about the way things were going shortly before the complaint was raised against me.
The NAEA was once and still has the potential to be a great force for good for its members and the public they serve by their professionalism. I never had any time for the ‘bought letters after their name’ brigade and still don’t. Agents should be qualified and licensed before being let loose on a family’s biggest asset. It is madness that I would need to hold a license to open a door at a nightclub but not if I want to do so to a potential buyer of someone’s home.
The saddest part of this whole process is that I have yet to see one letter of support for the NAEA on here except by someone whose ‘nome de plume’ leads me to presume that they are an employee of the Federation in any case. The silence of support is deafening.

• 05 July 2010 10:26 AM

I worked in international conferencing before starting an estate agency. I've dealt with trade associations from the telecoms to the pharmaceutical to the financial services sector.

EVERY SINGLE ONE I've dealt with exists to further its own influence.

The NAEA is still one of the worst for this. It's tacit support for licencing estate agency - more regulation, more boxes to tick - is absolutely not in the interests of agents (waste of time) or consumers (barriers to entry that mean poor incumbents are more likely to stay in business, and innovative challengers have to sign up to the old ways as a pre-requisite).

The only reason the NAEA supports licencing is that it wants/expects to become the licencing body.

Self interest and self aggrandisement is a common thread through all the NAEA's work. No wonder they broke their own procedural rules to get rid of someone who dared to challenge and question.

• 02 July 2010 09:33 AM

Ray how many years did you study and how many exams did you sit to get your initials then? Err none I bet if you are honest.

• 01 July 2010 16:13 PM

If Chris Wood had not been the subject of a disciplinary matter then he would have been NAEA President last year. Do you think he would have resigned then?

• 01 July 2010 08:42 AM

I was a NAEA member for 16 years but came out! i still run a very succesful resi practise in the North West. Im afraid the NAEA did nothing for me except a few magazines each year and a subscription for nothing. Like many others i do not see the point of them. My thoughts and best wishes go to CHRIS WOOD i hope you continue to thrive in business without the NAEA.

• 30 June 2010 21:01 PM

My own experience with the ARLA side totally turned me off and I decided to lapse my membership after struggling to get the correct details recorded by the membership department. Instead, I have joined NALS which as I like to point out is actually government approved where ARLA is 'just' a members body. NFOPP does seem to be turning inward and becoming far less relevant to the membership. The board must reengage with the members so that they feel that they are able to contrbute. As a joke when I was going through my problems I asked how I could get on the board and the person I was speaking to at NFOPP was stunned that I had asked and wasn't sure of the process.

• 30 June 2010 17:13 PM

Loss:
Please let me know how I can just 'buy' these initials - and how much do they cost?

• 30 June 2010 15:33 PM

I'd like to think I've subsidised many a golf event and fancy dress party for the ladies & gents at Warwick. Unfortunately it appears to be the only affiliation out there for an Agent to belong to that gives any 'credence' and I'm more a member through 'fear of not' ( sounds familiar 'Rightmove' !) than for anything else. That said I've met plenty of good professional agents who have managed nicely out of not being a member of the NAEA ( & RM ) and dont have to pay annually for some really great benefits.....erm, let me think...no sorry I cant remember them all at this minute.

• 30 June 2010 13:30 PM

Where will agents buy initials from if the NAEA dies? just marketing to fool the poor public, like the London office etc

• 30 June 2010 13:17 PM

I decided not to renew my membership about 10 years ago. If there's something wrong it usually comes down from the top.

• 30 June 2010 12:04 PM

It's me again!
I have been a member of the NAEA since 1975 and have previously a served as a Branch Committee member and attended meetings at Warwick. I agree with most of the other comments and especially Vossy, Sydney and Howard. The NFoPP seems to have lost touch and is becoming a self serving vehicle for itself, not its members.
I believe the NAEA was indeed formed in the early 1970's to stand up to the RICS who were lobbying to prevent the 'unqualified' from introducing real marketing and the pro-active Selling or Letting of residential property. (a much needed activity as anyone could only then use mainly RICS agents). However, using the word 'unqualified' in respect of non RICS residental agents would seem to be not quite accurate as at least we now have training courses and examinations for which we can thank the past NAEA for providing?

• 30 June 2010 11:51 AM

I agree with many posts here. The NAEA is a waste of time. Customers dont know what the letters mean. They dont police actively malpractice. Many people I know who have MNAEA after their name I would not have sell my house. Its not an accreditation that holds any sway. That may be why most in my area dont bother becoming members. Mandatory qualification and full regulation is the only system that will gain respect of consumers and ensure professionalism to the core. Fees are £175.00 per person.

• 30 June 2010 11:35 AM

I would like to wish Chris all the best and understand his frustration with an organisation that is out of tune with its membership and acts more like a regulatory body than a membership organistion set up to support and help the members.

• 30 June 2010 11:00 AM

Questions to those Members posting here who feel so strongly about the NAEA's lack of support, its' self-importance etc:
Do you attend meetings and voice these thoughts?
Do you speak to your local Council?
Do you attend meetings?
Do the NAEA know of your feelings - other than reading them on here?

If you are genuine in your concerns, then do the right thing and take it up with the Association. Many of the 'Members' I know are purely in it for the letters on their business cards and not for the good of the industry.

• 30 June 2010 10:52 AM

Unfortunately the writing has been on the wall for a few years now. The NAEA originally supported the ESTAS but within a couple of years it became apparent to me the interests of some individuals in the association took priority over everything else and that culture appears to have been allowed to continue. If ever there was a need for a new association which had a strong brand identity with member AND consumer interests at its core it's now. By the way can anyone tell me how much annual membership of the NAEA is for a single branch?

• 30 June 2010 10:46 AM

totally agree with all of the other comments. why should we unqualifed agents belong to an association which does not appreciate the value of experience. they never stand up for our rights when other 'ill informed' bodies attack us.

• 30 June 2010 10:19 AM

I have been in property for over 20 years, many of which I was a member of the NAEA. In all that time I have never seen the NAEA do anything for its membership. Even when HIPs came along instead of assisting their members they decided to campaign against certain legislation. What have done recently, Oh yes a property portal, what an amazing success that has been for membership. The NAEA don't know or seem to care about the very people that keep the body in existence.

• 30 June 2010 10:05 AM

Totally agree with the previous 2 comments, NAEA/ARLA are following the way of the RICS - a self interested talking shop no longer representing or providing value to its members.
The result is that most members of the public are unaware of what any of these organisations do - let alone, who and what they represent - and they certainly do not specifically seek out a member of these organisations when looking to place an instruction.
Perhaps the board should ask its members: What is our purpose? What have we delivered? Are we value for money? and see what the answer is, and where future efforts should be concentrated.

• 30 June 2010 09:59 AM

The NAEA is a complete shambles. It's time for the unctious, self-serving slime balls that run it to get a good kicking.

• 30 June 2010 09:54 AM

It's a useless organisation run by people full of their own self importance. I quit 20 years ago, saved a fortune!

• 30 June 2010 09:54 AM

Totally agree with Vossy, its about time we asked why we have a Chartered Surveyor running the NAEA which was set up for unqualified Agents. Like many Charities the NAEA is now a money making training machine to enable top salaries to be paid to its employees who are now running the asylum for their benefit and not its Members!!!

• 30 June 2010 09:44 AM

Good for you Chris...the NAEA or NFOPP has lost touch with its members and cant event organise a decent woprking web site. We remain members for one reason only (in case Govt legislation means Agents have to be a member of a professional body) other than that the NAEA have done nothing for us over the last 15 years we have been members.

• 30 June 2010 09:29 AM