Licensing Letting Agents - NALS Takes up the Challenge Following Industry-wide Consultation

LONDON - With the licensing of both letting agents and landlords rapidly climbing up the housing agenda, NALS, the National Approved Letting Scheme, will offer licensing to all its existing registered letting offices from this week.

This moves follows extensive consultation throughout the summer on a framework for statutory licensing drafted by NALS. This was drawn up under the Chairmanship of Lord Richard Best and proposes to government to make trading as a letting agent without a licence an illegal activity.

All 1,800 existing registered letting offices of the National Approved Letting Scheme will be issued with the new “Licensed by NALS” logo and the promotional material. Roll out of this operation is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

Announcing the new regime, Caroline Pickering, Chair of NALS, said, “Licensing for the private rented sector is now inevitable as well as very overdue. I believe that NALS as the government sponsored independent accreditation scheme for letting agents should take the lead.”

Caroline Pickering pointed out that licensing is the major recommendation of the government commissioned Rugg Review and also of the Carsberg Review commissioned by the professional bodies within the industry.

“The Private Rented Sector has grown rapidly over the past few years, not least because of Buy to Let, and it will continue to grow. This is the sector that provides a viable choice in housing so the very least the consumer can expect is that their agents are properly regulated with a proper system in place to audit compliance.”

Before launching the NALS Licence, the scheme consulted widely on the Framework for Licensing and on consumer understanding of the meaning of licensing both across the industry and with consumer, local government and tenants rights groups.

NALS licensing requirements include client money protection, ring-fenced client accounts, professional indemnity insurance, and access to independent redress through the Property Ombudsman Scheme as well as strict compliance with the Code of Conduct with spot check auditing.

The NALS Framework for Licensing can be downloaded from www.nalscheme.co.uk

Source: National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS)

Media contact: Malcolm Harrison +44(0)20-7581-8335