Witlet

Tenant Fee Ban Opportunity

Do you know what the tenant fee ban is? No? Well, in a nutshell, it is a planned ban on fees charged by lettings agents onto tenants. There are other items that should also be considered such as Client Money Protection, potential deposit restrictions and a ban on cleaning fees etc. to tenants (read more on the RLA website: https://bit.ly/2tlod8y).

While on the surface, this sounds like landlords are, once again, going to be put out of pocket, this should be viewed as an extraordinary opportunity to re-write the service offering n the lettings industry. Sure some landlords will look to tighten their belts even further and look to do away with Letting Agents when renting their homes but this is most certainly a false economy. Instead, landlords should ask/expect their agents to prove their worth. And what exactly is that?

1. Legislation: Lettings in becoming a legislative minefield and letting agents should allow a landlord to rest easy and not stress about falling foul of the law. The new laws being introduced carry heavy penalties and the agent should act as a landlord’s Sherpa to ensure profits are maximised.
2. Accounting: This one has been mooted for some time but when HMRC finally steps into the digital era, the idea is that tax returns will be made every 3 months online! Having all your tax affairs in line is going to be absolutely essential and this is another way an agent can step into their own by ensuring this is all done for a landlord to simply input.
3. Workload: The traditional element of letting agency that is often overlooked by many firms in favour for the sales procedure. Day to day running of property can be extremely time consuming so marrying this traditional element with modern day, 21^st century “on demand” technology will again take a lot of stress of a landlord’s plate!
4. Customer Service: The day of a simplistic “The landlord is the customer” is over – we have to recognise a tenant also expects to be provided with a service. Taking a rental basic service such as rent collection, why not incorporate regular reminders and automated systems to ensure all parties are happy? Furthermore, the smaller bits, such as Inspections, should be treated with equal care
5. Technology: All the above can be achieved via the use of “PropTech”, a burgeoning technology scene that is allowing letting agents to burst forward and provide these better services. Gone are the days of a property inspection scribbled down on an A4 piece of paper and notes made. Now we have photographic inspections that allow a landlord to see exactly what is going on in their property.

As you can see, we at WitLet have thought long and hard on what and how we are going to deliver our services in the light of harsher landlord legislation. We have teamed up with lots of tech firms to deliver systems such as online maintenance reporting, photographic inventories, automatic accounting software and much more to come in the pipeline. If you are looking to the future and are interested in seeing how WitLet can serve you better while potentially costing you less, call us today on 01376502500 or alternatively email us at info@witlet.co.uk and ask for more information.