On 24th January 2019 MHCLG announced that it will become compulsory for Private Landlords in England to become members of a Redress Scheme.

No dates are available yet as to when this will become law but meanwhile I have been looking into the cost implications and decided to make my membership application to the Property Redress Scheme TODAY!

The reason for that is that I have been given a discount code, which all Property118 members can use, to get 50% off the standard fees quoted below.

Entry Level annual subscription is £ 110 + VAT and an additional complaints handling fee of £110 is changed for every complaint.

Enhanced membership annual subscription is £ 199 + VAT but there are no additional complaints handling fees subject to a fair use policy.

I don’t know how long the discount code will be available, which is why I have decided to sign up today!

The discount code is: Landlord50

The link to the Property Redress Scheme membership application page is https://www.theprs.co.uk/propertyagent/register/

Reasons to join the Property Redress Scheme.

• A quick and easy joining process
• No Code of Practice to adhere to
• Competitive and affordable membership fees on our models
• Consumers must exhaust the Member’s own complaints process before contacting PRS
• The Member has 10 working days to resolve a complaint directly before PRS become formally involved.
• Only at this point will the Member on the Entry level membership incur an administrative fee for PRS dealing with the complaint.
• A PRS Case Assessor will collect the evidence and try to resolve the complaint directly with the parties.
• Only if the parties remain unable to come to a resolution will a binding decision be be made.
• General advice and guidance available on the PRS website and by telephone/email.
• PRS experienced and trained staff will aim to provide everyone with the best possible experience every time.
• PRS logo provided to Members by email and window sticker to show Membership provided in post.
• Enhanced Model members are provided with access to an independent legal advice helpline provided by Arc Legal in association with Irwin Mitchell solicitors.

I think the new legislation will help to professionalise the industry and help the authorities to root-out tax-dodgers and landlords letting dangerous housing. However, I just wish the Government would make their minds up. My preference would be for one National scheme, similar to Rent Smart Wales, and then scrap all the others such as Landlord Registration in Scotland and especially the money grabbing scams operated by an increasing number of Council’s under the badge of Selective Licensing. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking though?

UPDATE

STATEMENT FROM TIM FROM ON BEHALF OF PROPERTY REDRESS SCHEME …..

Dear Property118 members

The government have announced that landlord redress will be mandatory in the future and they will be authorising schemes to cover landlords. They are setting up a Redress Reform Working Group to look at the practicalities of implementation and we at the Property Redress Scheme will be members of this group. Once we have more information about the remit and process for authorisation for landlord redress we will make a decision on applying.

The Property Redress Scheme was set up in the summer of 2014 after obtaining authorisation from the government and National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team (NTSEAT) to allow property agents to comply with their legal requirement to join a consumer redress scheme. We now have just under 10,000 branches registered and dealt with over 1,000 complaints in 2018.

When we set up the scheme we also allowed property professionals including landlords to join voluntarily to offer the same redress service as property agents to their customers. I just need to clarify that for property professionals this is not the same as being legally required to join or complying with a legal requirement to join an authorised redress scheme.

We set up a discount code of Landlord50 back in early 2017 to test interest in landlords joining voluntarily. I understand that this code was sent to all property118 members so as a gesture of goodwill we have decided to reactivate it for one week and it will be live until 5pm on 1st February 2019.

The scheme is currently only designed for those based in the UK and our system does not accept non-UK addresses. This is something we will be looking at as part of any authorisation process for offering mandatory landlord redress.

I thank Mark for contacting us and asking me to clarify our current position with landlord redress. I will also be keeping him informed of any developments.

Kind regards

Tim Frome
Property Redress Scheme

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