With the collapse of the Colchester-based letting agents, Hot Lets, ARLA, the Association of Residential Letting Agents, has asked members to step up their individual efforts to warn the public of the dangers of unregulated agents.

Speaking at the AGM of the ARLA Essex Region on Wednesday 23 April, Ian Potter, Head of Operations, said, Until we have a licensing regime that covers every letting agent, it is for ARLA members to educate the public into the dangers of losing rents and deposits and the possible mismanagement of valuable properties.

“There is too much money, heartache and property at stake for this to be left any longer”, he added.

He pointed out that ARLA has been lobbying successive governments to introduce licensing for many years. “So far, government has been content to leave it to ARLA to self-regulate the Private Rented Sector. We cannot do all this alone. We can only regulate out own members and lead the way by example.”

At the Essex area AGM, held at the County Hotel, Chelmsford last night, Ian Potter listed the questions that every landlord and tenant should be taught to ask a letting agent.

He said they should ask: “Are you members of a professional body? Do you maintain separate client accounts? Are you bonded? Do you hold professional indemnity insurance? Are your staff qualified? Are you joined to a tenancy deposit protection scheme?”

“Tell every landlord and tenant that they must ask these questions of their letting agent and to only use them if they can answer yes to all these questions”, Ian Potter warned.

He said that it is down to every ARLA member to step up their efforts to educate the public in their own locations and to ask their landlords and tenants to lobby their MPs for the licensing of letting agents.

“We must get the public to join in the fight for the licensing of letting agents, Ian Potter added”.

There are nearly 2,500 ARLA member letting agents throughout the country. The Association expects them to display their current annual membership certificate in a prominent place and to use the ARLA insignia wherever they can. ARLA lists all members on its website www.arla.co.uk