UK Association for Letting Agents UKALA relaunch

9:00 AM, 18th October 2012, About 12 years ago 3

Text Size

The UK Association for Letting Agents (UKALA) has relaunched with a new membership offering aimed at helping professional lettings agents compete in an evolving private rented sector. To help spearhead the new approach, Caroline Kenny (Formerly a partner at Cluttons LLP) has been appointed the new UKALA Executive.

Caroline Kenny confirmed that the new membership criteria require all applicants to be vetted against UKALA safeguards, and only if these requirements are met can lettings agencies become members and be covered by UKALA’s Client Money Protection (CMP) insurance.

Hamilton Fraser Insurance are the underwriters for UKALA CMP insurance. This covers the theft of a client’s money, which is in the care of an Association Member, by an Employee, Director or Partner (acting on behalf of the member) or by a Third Party. The Annual Limit of Indemnity is £5,000,000,with a sub-limit of £500,000 per insured loss and £25,000 for any one tenant/ landlord claim. Any client money from the landlord or tenant is covered by this CMP insurance.

Property118 asked Caroline if SafeAgent will be accepting UKALA members automatically. Caroline responded that “UKALA shares the same objective as SafeAgent in demonstrating that a letting agent has certain consumer safeguards in place. UKALA agents can also offer the same level of financial protection through its own independent CMPI policy, PI insurance and access to an independent complaints redress scheme, as well as additional membership benefits. UKALA agents are free to purchase the SafeAgent badge in addition to their UKALA membership if they believe that it would bring further value to their business. However, the requirements of SafeAgent status would increase UKALA membership fees to a level which the Association no longer considers to be reasonable or competitive.”

UKALA have also strengthened their Code of Practice to ensure that prior to an applicant’s offer being formally accepted, agents will have to set out in writing any significant tenancy pre-conditions and terms for the letting, such as their potential liability for fees and charges. Failure to do so will mean that tenants will not be liable for fees or charges that are not clearly set out prior to the formal acceptance”.

UKALA report that with the Private Rented Sector growing by nearly 90% over the past ten years, and government figures showing that the sector now accounts for over 4.5 m households, the expectations of both tenants and landlords are driving change throughout the property industry and placing new demands on letting agents. To drive improvements across the sector, UKALA’s new management team aim to help agents deliver a professional service and raise standards across the industry.

Share This Article

Tags: Letting Agent, Private Rented Sector

Comments

Puzzler

19:37 PM, 18th October 2012, About 12 years ago

How does this compare with ARLA? Is it an alternative or does it offer something else?

Report Comment Reply

16:27 PM, 19th October 2012, About 12 years ago

It's just another sticker on the window, doesn't do much as membership is dropping off so trying to reinvent

Report Comment Reply

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

17:24 PM, 19th October 2012, About 12 years ago

UKALA is now a direct competitor to ARLA and NALS. It is a part of the National Landlords Association so they obviously recommend their own members to use UKALA Agents. The organisation was shrinking, in my opinion due to the fact that their members didn't qualify to become SAFEagents and in that regard I agree that UKALA has been seen by many in the industry as just another badge of late. However, now that all members will have CMP (Client Money Protection) I see that as being an opportunity for UKALA members to be able to compete on a level playing field with NALS and ARLA members. UKALA may well lose a few members who don't make the grade, however, I see that as a positive move in the longer term. UKALA should be congratulated for making this bold move, healthy competition is a good thing in my opinion.

Report Comment Reply

Leave Comments

In order to post comments you will need to Sign In or Sign Up for a FREE Membership

Continue with Facebook

Continue with Twitter

Username/Email Address

Password

Remember Me

Forgotten your password?

Don't have an account? Sign Up

“Account”	means an account required to access and/or use certain areas and features of Our Site;
“Cookie”	means a small text file placed on your computer or device by Our Site when you visit certain parts of Our Site and/or when you use certain features of Our Site. Details of the Cookies used by Our Site are set out in section 13, below;
“Cookie Law”	means the relevant parts of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003;
“personal data”	means any and all data that relates to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified from that data. In this case, it means personal data that you give to Us via Our Site. This definition shall, where applicable, incorporate the definitions provided in the EU Regulation 2016/679 – the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”); and
“We/Us/Our”	Means Property118 Ltd , a limited company registered in England under company number 10295964, whose registered address is 1st Floor, Woburn House, 84 St Benedicts Street, Norwich, NR2 4AB.

Name of Cookie	Purpose	Strictly Necessary
JSESSIONID	Used only to collect performance data, with any identifiable data obfuscated	No
__cfduid	This cookie is strictly necessary for Cloudflare's security features and cannot be turned off.	Yes

Name of Cookie	First / Third Party	Provider	Purpose
__utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmt, __utmz	First	Google	Helps to understand how their visitors engage with our website
_fbp	First	Facebook	Helps to understand how their visitors engage with our website