Letting Agents may be the Answer for Many Overwhelmed Landlords

Being an independent landlord is becoming increasingly more difficult, due to the constant changes in laws and regulations.

There has been a boom in the buy-to-let property market over the last decade, with a flood of new landlords entering the market. With this in mind, it does not come as a surprise to us to hear that there is a struggle to maintain a high level of compliance to laws and regulations.

Despite the best efforts of news websites, such as our own and that of Just Landlords, to keep property professionals up to date with the latest updates and changes, not everyone is successfully reached.

Landlords have over 145 individual laws and more than 400 regulations to follow, as well as the on-going updates and changes. With this in mind, we were interested to find that research from TheHouseShop, the property marketplace, has revealed that 1 in 5 landlords said they find it “impossible” to keep up with constant regulation changes. A further 29.9% stated that they find it “very difficult” and another 31.2% find it “quite difficult”.

It seems clear that the overall consensus is that landlords are being overwhelmed by the volume and complexity of rules and regulations in the rental industry. This specifically was listed as the most challenging aspect of managing a rental property by 63.4% of the landlords involved with the research.

Letting Agents may be the Answer for Many Overwhelmed Landlords

Despite landlords wanting to maintain their independence as a property professional, some may find this strain greatly relieved by the assistance of a letting agent. Many are reluctant to go to them for help, as such a partnership can cost 10-15% of their rental income for the benefit of a full management service. With the upcoming introduction of the Tenant Fees Ban, landlords are left wary of these costs increasing further. To find out more about this ban, take a look at Just Landlords’ article, discussing the change.

Research from ARLA Propertymark has found that on average tenant fees amount to one fifth of letting agents’ revenue, and two thirds of letting agents would make up these losses from the fees ban by increasing the costs due to landlords.

This is leaving landlords feeling trapped, with a blow to their finances inbound whichever way they turn.

However, alternatives are being devised, with an aim to keep all sides content. As an example, TheHouseShop has recently launched a fixed price property management service. It claims to offer the same comprehensive level of service you would expect from a traditional letting agent, but for a fraction of price.

Nick Marr, co-founder of TheHouseShop, has commented: “It’s a really difficult environment that landlords are operating in at the moment. The government have undertaken a range of measures to try and drive up standards in the rental industry, and while this is by no means a bad thing, it does mean that landlords have increasingly complex and wide-ranging responsibilities to deal with.”

“After speaking with our landlords, it became clear that compliance was a huge concern, but many of them simply weren’t prepared to hand over 10-15% of their rental income to have a professional manage their properties for them.”

“We wanted to do things differently and give landlords a new way to professionally manage their properties without breaking the bank. Our fixed price model means that landlords no longer have to choose between losing out on rental income and spending hours and hours dealing with compliance issues.”