The UK rentals sector is faster, more aggressive, and more complex—so letting agent role more critical than ever. Letting agents play intermediary role of landlord to renter, expert know-how creating effortless letting of property a possibility, making lawfulness certain, and providing channel for communication. A new-to-property landlord, savvy investor, or homeowner on the move in search of alternative accommodation, letting agents provide expertise, advice, and coordination within increasingly regulated realm.
What Do Letting Agents Do?
Letting agents rent the property on behalf of their landlords. Their role ranges from selling the property and viewing, through to references, drawing up tenancy agreements, collecting rent, and making repairs.
Agents typically offer three services:
Let Only – The agent finds the tenant, arranges the references, and draws up the agreement, and then the landlord deals with the property themselves.
Rent Collection – The agent collects rent monthly and pursues arrears but not property maintenance.
Fully Managed – The agent does everything, including maintenance, inspections, notices of covenant default, and emergency work, making landlords’ lives easier.
Advantages for Landlords
For landlords, letting agents provide reassurance. They understand local rental markets and help negotiate rents competitively, minimizing voids. Their tenant referencing minimizes the risk of arrears or property damage, and their knowledge of the legislation guarantees the tenancy is in complete compliance with all the new legislation—deposit protection to right-to-rent checks.
Increased legislation in recent years on the issues of energy efficiency, regulation, and rights under tenancy has made it even more challenging to keep pace with the changes. Agents advise landlords of the developments under the regulation so that they don’t get caught into costly fines or lawsuits.
Agents are also a shock-absorber for stressful situations. In case of conflicts—over rent, maintenance, or terms of contract—agents resolve them professionally, protecting both parties from unnecessary stress.
Benefits for Tenants
Tenants also benefit from the employment of letting agents. Qualified agents bring transparency and consistency to letting. Details displayed in properties are meant to accurately describe them, tenancy contracts are drawn up by professionals, and deposits are lodged in government-approved schemes.
For tenants, hiring through an agent will have problems and issues resolved quickly. Agents will typically maintain a list of vetted builders and possess a generic reporting system, and this could have problems resolved faster than if one reports it to a landlord.
Rented tenants will also have a specific point of contact where there can be problems or questions, something that can be potentially of very great utility where there is joint occupation or accommodation.
Regulation and Standards
English letting agencies are subject to ever more regulation. All agents from April 2019 have to be a member, as a condition of law, of an authorised by government client money protection scheme, safeguarding cash of tenants’ and landlords’.
They must also be protected by a redress scheme such as The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme, providing a means short of the courts for resolving disagreements.
Also, although there is at present no necessity to allow agents to become licensed (except in Scotland and Wales), some do choose to get registered with trade associations within the industry such as ARLA Propertymark, who have codes of practice that they follow and who also provide professional training.
Choosing a Letting Agent
As a tenant or landlord, the variation will be in choosing the appropriate letting agent. For the landlord, it will generally be a question of level of service, charges, and local awareness. Ask them what their approach to marketing is, void periods, and independent inventories and credit checks application.
For the tenants as well, it is worthwhile to consider online comment, response, and if they disclose charges and commitment. A good agent should never lack written terms and a tenancy agreement.
Fees and Transparency
Since the Tenant Fees Act 2019, lettings agents in England no longer receive payment from tenants for referencing, inventories, or check-out reports. This has reduced up-front charges to tenants and introduced more equity into the process.
Landlords will still pay for the service they require. These always need to be broken down clearly upfront, and there should never be any surprise charges.
The Digital Shift
Similar to the rest of an overwhelming majority of businesses, lettings are going digital. Browsing virtually, signing documents from afar, paying rent in internet-based ways become commonplace. There now capable of providing a variety online wholly-systems several fee-competitive charging with coverage nationwide.
But there are still traditional high-street agents due to local knowledge, human interaction, and ease of person-to-person communication. More sophisticated letting agents Derby are adopting both but in moderation by combining technology with retaining human touch points.
