ARLA, the leading professional body for the Private Rented Sector, believes that the Law Commission’s proposals for enforced self-regulation for letting agents show the way forward but still believes that all letting agents should be licensed.

In a response to the Commission’s consultation document, “Encouraging Responsible Letting” (published Oct 22), ARLA, the Association of Residential Letting Agents, points out that it believes that only half of all letting agents belong to self-regulating professional bodies and that most new entrants to the industry are untrained and unaffiliated.

ARLA hopes that with the backing of the Law Commission’s proposals, Government will now consider legislation requiring all letting agents to be members of a professional body before they can begin to trade. This is a position that has been advocated by the Association and the other professional bodies for more than a decade.

However, the Association does not believe that this self-regulation should be operated under the auspices of an Ombudsman. ARLA supports the opinion of the Office of Fair Trading that an Ombudsman is not a regulator.

Explaining ARLA President Robert Jordan said, “We would like to see all letting agents licensed. However, the Private Rented Sector needs regulation with a light touch. We must be able to keep our house in order without discouraging the private individuals who run, invest in and maintain the rental market.

This experienced regulation can be organised and policed by professional bodies such as ARLA who provide qualifications, complaints and disciplinary procedures and maintain the safeguards for tenants’ deposits and landlords’ rents. This blueprint is needed for the whole of the rental market, not only for our members and their landlords and tenants.”

However, in their response, ARLA notes that even without any legislative requirement, membership of organisations like ARLA is steadily increasing. Letting agents see their membership as the best source of information on new and often complex legislation.

ARLA was pleased that the Law Commission recognises the work already done by these affiliated agents and their professional bodies and stressed that it is important to understand the difference between these professional organisations and accreditation schemes.

An accreditation scheme is generally self-certifying with a minimum set of standards. It does not proactively monitor, police and enforce standards and business practice. Professional bodies for letting agents have stringent entry criteria, often linked to examinations and qualifications. They also run systems for continuous monitoring that are linked to independent complaints and disciplinary systems.

Robert Jordan added: “We are delighted that the Law Commission recognises and supports the ground work done by ARLA to provide practical, light touch regulation and safeguards for the public. We have been working on this for more than two decades now and feel that with the support of the Commission we may at last reach the stage where every letting agent is, effectively, licensed to operate by those professionals who best understand the business and the market it has to operate in.”