|
 |
 |
|
|
Letting agent fee guidance on way from ASA By Simon Thompson |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Consumer watchdogs are about to publish guidance for letting agents on displaying their fees in buy to let property advertising.
The industry was thrown in to disarray when the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled letting agency Your Move breached codes by failing to tell tenants about the firm’s charges when displaying ads on and offline.
Since then, letting agents have tried to work out whether the ruling applies to all firms.
Property portal Rightmove has applied a disclaimer to letting agent ads and the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) has met with the Office of Fair Trading in a bid to thrash out the issue.
However, an ASA spokesman has revealed industry-wide guidance is being drafted by the ASA compliance team, which is keen to iron out the problems with letting agents.
“The guidance will be issued soon, but I cannot say exactly when,” said an ASA spokesman.
Details of the guidance have not been revealed.
The move follows on the recent NALS/OFT meeting – the OFT is the government agency the ASA refers complaints to.
NALS CEO Isobel Thomson said: “Since the ASA ruling the industry has been trying to reach a conclusion as to how agents can comply. Given that the ultimate sanction the ASA has available is referral of non-compliant agents to the OFT or Trading Standards, it made sense to meet with them in light of their regulatory role at the earliest opportunity. We wait to hear the outcome of their consideration of some of the practical issues raised.”
The meeting involved many leading letting agents – including Foxtons, Hunters, Leaders, Northwood,
Sequence, Spicerhaart, Touchstone, Winkworth and Your Move.
Landlords should consider the impact letting agent fees might have on their property business when selecting an agent.
If the fees are high, this could discourage good tenants from signing a lease and lead to longer void periods.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
View more
|
|
Are you an existing landlord?
Click here to log into your account
|
Are you new to AFS, click here to find out more information
|
|
|  |
|