This month has been packed full of interesting developments in the Private Rented Sector, from the election and the Queens speech this week to the ARLA conference in Cardiff spotlighting on the new Housing (Wales) Act 2014. 

Essentially the government has seen a way where Landlords and Agents can help their immigration issues by making us check whether or not someone should be allowed to be in the country, (immigration checks) and therefore do they then have a right to rent a property?

A pilot scheme in the midlands has meant that all Landlords there already have to check whether or not applicants are allowed to actually have a right to live in the UK and rent a property. Now the Conservatives are not in a coalition they have taken the step to ensure that this is now rolled out across the UK.

Due to the already comprehensive referencing structure McCartan Lettings already have in place, applying additional checks are not too onerous for us, however it will be important for all Landlords to be aware that they will be responsible for ensuring the immigration and right to rent checks have been undertaken, whether they use a letting agent or privately rent out their property. We have already put a system in place to request a copy of each tenant and occupier’s passport (even if they are of British Nationality) to mitigate any potential issues arising from this proposed new legislation.

In his speech on the 22nd May, Mr Cameron also slipped in a mandatory licensing scheme to be introduced along with new rules allowing landlords to evict illegal immigrants more quickly. “We’ll also crack down on the unscrupulous landlords who cram houses full of illegal migrants, by introducing a new mandatory licensing regime. And, a bit like ending jobs when visas expire, we’ll consult on cancelling tenancies automatically at the same point,” he said.

David Cox, Managing Director at the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), says that this is not a full solution. “This is a step in the right direction, it’s not the full solution to the problem of rogue agents plaguing the market. We urge the Government to take this opportunity and impose more appropriate, overarching regulation on the whole lettings industry,” he added.

We will have more information on this in the coming months.

Getting to speak with the people who are at the top was incredibly useful to understand first hand what is going on. It does however still seem to be very much in it's infancy stages even though the Act is due to come into force in under 6 months!

It was announced at the conference that the Welsh Assembly are now looking at a further extension of the grace period from implementing The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 to enforcement from 6 months to one year. T

In the next few weeks other providers of the one day training be announced too, some who can hopefully offer online training for those who cant travel or are not living in Wales, a concern I addressed with Anne Rowlands and David Cox. 

We will be publishing who the other accredited training providers will be in our next newsletter. 

If you missed last months newsletter, a link for it is here

To read the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 Bill on the Welsh Assembly Governments website - click here

Next week is Safe Agent Awareness week (1st - 5th June 2015) and we will be heavily promoting the importance of Landlords using agencies with Client Money Protection (CMP) Insurance online and in our office in Killay. Why not pop in or give us a call to find out more about what having CMP insurance means for you.

Tenant and landlord financial protection remains in the media spotlight in 2015 in the wake of a few high profile instances of where lettings agents misused funds. However, despite this, SAFEagent feels that the message is still not getting through that consumers’ finances are at risk if their chosen agent does not subscribe to a CMP scheme.

‘There are still too many people who are not aware of the potential pitfalls of choosing an agent who doesn’t have CMP”, says John Midgley, Chair of the SAFEagent Steering Group.

Midgely maintains that whilst awareness of the SAFEagent mark is increasing, consumers are not always aware of the fact that if an agent were to abscond with a landlord or tenant’s money without CMP in place - there would be little chance of retrieving those funds. And, as a result – consumers are still not always asking the right questions at the onset.

He says: “Whilst the last few years have seen the Government move to tighten regulations around letting agents, it is also important that tenants and landlords understand that the right to redress only goes so far, and they need to choose wisely by asking a few simple questions. It can make all the difference”.

“As it stands we welcome the requirement for all agents to display whether or not they are part of a CMP scheme but we want to see inclusion in such a scheme a mandatory requirement for all agents.”

Tenants and landlords / consumers are encouraged to go on-line and check out www.safeagents.co.uk to find an agent in their area and the advice is to always look for the SAFEagent mark, an easily identifiable consumer mark denoting agents subscribed to a Client Money Protection (CMP) Scheme. 

Since McCartan Lettings was founded in 2006 I have been promoting the importance of landlords and tenants only using the services of qualified and regulated letting agencies. By looking out for the Safe Agent logo you know that your agent is keeping your money protected with Client Money Protection insurance.