In a move that has been welcomed by tenants and landlords alike the National Landlords Association have announced it is to launch a new help and advice website in conjunction with the Health and Safety Executive.

It is anticipated the advice line will give help to landlords seeking advice mainly on the legal requirements they have to adhere to. Fire regulations and appliance safety checks along with the qualifications of the tradesmen carrying them out are both strictly controlled by law and enquiries about them are expected to be at the forefront of advice seekers. Help with local council regulations and licensing is expected to feature on the question list but it is not certain whether advice on how to acquire landlord insurance will be available.

Peter Brown the Health and Safety Executives head of environment, radiation and gas division said: “Though there are legal duties on landlords, meeting them shouldn’t be an onerous task.

“The new website provides all the information landlords need in one place.”

The advice line imitative comes in the wake of several high profile cases of Landlords flouting legal safety requirements and in some cases putting lives at risk, indeed one Norfolk landlord was sent to prison for two-and-a-half years after a young woman almost burned to death in a fire in one of his properties.

Property Ombudsman Christopher Hamer has called for the next Government to quickly regulate letting agents for the protection of the tenants and landlords who use them.

Mr Hamer revealed in his most recent annual report that disputes with letting agents had increased from 28% to 49% of his workload during 2009. Problems with sales agents therefore dropped to only 51% of his total. He added that he expected problems with lettings to constitute two thirds of his work load this year. It is thought that regulation would be all the more important given the continued low property sales figures that are continuing to lead homeowners to become ‘accidental landlords’, renting their properties out after failing to sell them.

Mr Hamer commented: “In the meantime, my message to any landlord or prospective tenant is to ensure that they use an agent who is a member of a recognised trade association or any agent who is a member of The Property Ombudsman scheme. Such firms will therefore be adhering to the TPO Code of Practice. In the absence of any formal regulation, my Code lays down the standards by which firms should conduct their business.”

Mr Hamer lamented “the alarming inconsistency” of letting agents not being covered by the provisions of the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act, the legislation that forced every one of the UK’s residential sales agents to register with an approved redress scheme, leading over 90% of UK estate agents to become members of TPO.  

 “Whilst many agents in the lettings business (a total of 2,241 companies with 7,200 offices at the end of 2009, and the numbers are growing) are in TPO membership and have shown that they want to apply high standards in all aspects of their business and afford dissatisfied consumers access to independent resolution of the matter through the TPO, there are still many firms operating under their own interpretation of what are appropriate standards.”

Despite a 45% increase in the lettings workload from 300 cases to 435, there was actually an overall 15% decline in TPO’s workload for the period due simply to the lack of referred sales disputes, which Mr Hamer regarded as “perhaps inevitable… given the market conditions over the past year.”

The disputes themselves were also generally less serious, as reflected in the average compensation award dropping from £666 in 2008 to £339 last year.

“As we stand at the moment, the need to develop the approach to customer service, to ‘up the game’ in terms of treatment of customers, is on the lettings side [rather than the sales agents’ side].”  A quote from Property Quote Direct.