Reading (rather late) the October issue of Property Investor News, I came across these interesting snippets of news: Insurance Apparently a survey by insurance firm Direct Line for Business has thrown up the fact that many landlords are cancelling their insurance policies ‘to save money’. Presumably these are people who are signed up to their…
At the recent Landlord & Buy to Let Awards ceremony, the presenter Konnie Huq had an interesting story about a ploy used by a large firm of agents she now regrets having used. The told her that they had found a tenant who was willing to rent her flat for five years. ‘Think of it’…
Letting agents are supposed to be the experts in lettings. Many are excellent. Unfortunately however, there are a lot of ‘cowboys’ about. The growing level of dissatisfaction with many agents is made very clear by an excellent article in the Cash section of the Observer today, which states that a number of surveys show increased…
There is an interesting article in the most recent (July 09) issue of Property Investor News about rogue letting agents. For example the journalist (Donia O’Loughlin) interviewed Paul Shamplina of Landlord Action. He reports a huge increase in instructions from landlords seeking to recover money from their agents, and it looks as if many of…
The Dispute Service have published their annual report, which could initially be downloaded from their web-site, although since first writing this post, the report appears to have gone offline, and it makes interesting reading. I list below the points which struck me. Generally it looks as if the service has been under some strain during the…
Rumour has it that quite a few letting agents (although not all by any means) are in financial difficulties. What does this mean for landlords, and what can they do to protect themselves? Here are some tips: 1. Make sure that your agent has payment protection. Ideally all client money should be kept in a…
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Trading standards clamp down on rogue Oxford agent
An interesting report in the Oxford Mail shows that it is never a waste of time to complain about rogue agents to Trading Standards. Oxford Trading Standards, in a joint operation with the Police, have raided two estate agents offices and two homes in a probe into complaints about missing rent and deposit payments. This…