Legislative Changes ahead
2024 is looking to be a busy year, with the Renters (Reform) Bill process continuing & new property licensing schemes launching. Agents and landlords need to plan carefully to juggle the various new requirements, while still leaving space to adapt to any further announcements throughout the year. Please be assured that we remain available to you for any support or guidance that may be needed.
Awaab’s Law proposed for rogue social Landlords
Social landlords will need to complete emergency repairs within 24 hours of identification, following a consultation launched by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Landlords who fail to follow this timescale can be taken to court and may be ordered to pay compensation to their tenants.
Awaab’s Law is named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who sadly died due to direct and prolonged exposure to mould in their home.
The main proposals in the Renter Reform Bill include:
- Abolishing Section 21 Notice evictions, which allow landlords to evict tenants without giving a reason.
- Reforming the Section 8 Notice process, to expand and strengthen the grounds for repossession for landlords
- Introducing a new type of Tenancy Agreement, which would allow tenants more security during the tenancy period
- Creating a landlords’ register where all landlords must register themselves and their properties on a Property Portal
- A new Ombudsman covering all private landlords to improve dispute resolution
- Applying the Decent Homes Standard (DHS) to privately rented homes
- Changes to how and when rent increases can be applied
We will continue to keep you updated and remain available to answer any questions you may have.
Stirling Ackroyd becomes a certified PropertyMark exam centre
On 18th July 2019 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government released a report outlining the Regulation of Property Agents (RoPA). The idea being to generate a new regulatory framework to raise the professional standards within the property industry.
The key recommendations were –
- All agencies operating within the residential property market should be licensed
- All colleagues within an agency delivering reserved activities should adhere to a Code of Practice
- All colleagues delivering these reserved activities should be qualified at a Level 3 or above
- Company directors should be qualified at Level 4 or above
- That a new regulator would be appointed to oversee agents compliance and the Code of Practice
For numerous reasons, including Covid these regulations have not yet been introduced, however, with a general election looming and Labour’s Shadow Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook stating publicly that they intend to revisit RoPA, this is a great time for all agents to look at their training strategy and ensure they have a plan to embrace RoPA.
Here at Stirling Ackroyd, we took a proactive view on RoPA and decided back in 2022 that we would invest in our colleagues and fund their development to become PropertyMark Level 3 qualified in either Residential Sales or Lettings and Property Management. We believed this would give us an advantage by having highly skilled and knowledgeable colleagues who could be trusted and best serve our clients.
Since January 2023 we have enrolled 40 colleagues from across all areas of our group with the qualification taking 12 months and requires the passing of 4 exams. At the time of writing, we have 4 colleagues who have successfully passed and a further 5 awaiting their results this month. This will continue to increase as our candidates complete the course this year.
Last year PropertyMark, approved Stirling Ackroyd to become one of their certified exam centres and for our Learning and Development Head – Steven Milicia to become one of their qualified invigilators, and to end the year on a high we won the prestigious 2023 Professional Standards in a Large Agent award category, beating much larger and well known agents!
What does this mean to you as a Landlord? Well, whenever you have contact with any of our colleagues here at Stirling Ackroyd you can be assured you, are being looked after by professional, trustworthy, and passionate individuals. Individuals who care about providing the highest level of service, honest advice teamed with industry knowledge to you.
Steven Milicia – Head of Learning & Development.
