by Inhouse Reporter
23. May 2013 16:35
One of the benefits of being a NALS licenced firm is access to a free health and safety/employment law helpline, run for our licenced firms by Peninsula.
Peninsula also run regular events on important issues, which are free for NALS members to attend.
In this blog, Nick Babington of Peninsula deals with the topic of smoking in the work place:
Smoking In and around business premises: what is allowed and what is not?
Although the Smoke-free Premises Regulations have been in force since July 2007, we continue to receive questions about the requirements and whether provision can or should be made for employees who smoke.
The Regulations simply state that it is against the law to smoke in virtually all 'enclosed' and 'substantially enclosed' workplaces and public places; these include public transport and work vehicles used by more than one person. Enforced by local Councils, the regulations make managers of smoke-free premises and vehicles legally responsible for preventing people from smoking in those places. To support the ban, no-smoking signs must be displayed in all smoke-free premises and vehicles. Even though the ban is well known and has been in force for 4 years these signs are still required and enforcing officers will expect to see them in place.
For employers the regulations mean that smoking must not be allowed anywhere within a workplace building. It means that staff smoking rooms and indoor smoking areas are no longer allowed. Anyone who wants to smoke has to go outside.
Although there is no requirement to provide a smoking shelter some employers choose to do so. It tends to stop people congregating and smoking in doorways and prevents smoke from blowing back into the building. Should you choose to provide a shelter remember that an enclosed shelter is not allowed. It must be open on 2 sides or the equivalent of half of the length of all the walls. You will also need to consider other issues such as planning, licensing, building control, noise and litter – if you are unsure of anything your local Council will be able to advise.
Unlike some other countries with a smoking ban our regulations do not yet prohibit smoking within a specific distance of a doorway or an open window. Many employers have their own rules on this matter which take account of their particular premises and situations. If the door opens onto a public footpath or road there is little that can be done without the agreement of the workforce. However if the workers are on private property further restrictions could be imposed on or agreed with them.
At Peninsula we do not permit our staff to smoke anywhere on our property other than in the purpose built smoking shelter that we have provided at the rear of our building, near to our car park entrance. We know of clients who have made similar provision while others have agreed with their workforce that smoking with 2 or 3 metres of windows or doorways is not permissible.
For more information, or assistance in dealing with smoking in the workplace, contact Nicholas Babington, Director 07896 036993 nick.babington@peninsula-uk.com
NALS is the National Approved Letting Scheme, and is the most respected and recognised scheme of its type; offering superb value for money for agents, and complete peace of mind for tenants and landlords.
Please follow us on Twitter and visit our YouTube Channel.
by Inhouse Reporter
22. May 2013 08:45
Imfuna, the property inspection platform, is the latest addition to NALS Recognised Supplier programme we designed to bring our members the best in the industry to support and advance your business.
With Imfuna Let perform property inspections (Inventory, Check-in, Interim, Check-out) using an Apple or Android mobile phone or tablets, and seamlessly produce immutable, bespoke property condition reports.
Imfuna is extending an enhanced trail offer to all active members who sign up for a free trial within 30-days of receipt of this email:
- 30-day trail period
- Unlimited inspections/inventories
- 40-minutes of dictation auto-transcribed
- 10% discount on your monthly subscription the first 3-months
Benefits include:
- Significantly saves time and cost (Users report up to 75% time savings).
- Unifies the property condition process from inspection to check-out resolution.
- Automates property condition reporting in a transparent manner from inspection to report production.
- Standardises data capture & reporting in a streamlined, efficient approach consistent with current business practice.
- Adaptable digital solution for your business consolidates the entire workflow.
- Creates a recognised professional product that represents industry best practices and enhances business reputation and brand recognition.
- Establishes a readily accessible property history available 24/7 for immutable property condition reports over tenancy term and property life.
View Sample Reports >> here.
Hear from your peers & watch Video Case Studies >> here
Learn more about the ‘design your own’ monthly subscription model >> here.
Please contact Bryony for to receive your NALS member-specific coupon for the enhanced free trial at support@imfuna.com or 0800 689 9054.
Imfuna represents the standards that we at NALS seek to represent in the market.
Imfuna Let, The Smart Property Letting Lifecycle Solution @ www.imfuna.co.uk
NALS is the National Approved Letting Scheme, and is the most respected and recognised scheme of its type; offering superb value for money for agents, and complete peace of mind for tenants and landlords.
Please follow us on Twitter and visit our YouTube Channel.
by Vanessa
3. May 2013 10:54
NALS is pleased to welcome Reapit & its RPS Software as an approved supplier of property management and letting software.
This is the second professional accreditation to be awarded to Reapit in the last four months.
In December 2012 Reapit obtained accreditation from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) for its new Client Accounting software.
NALS Chief Executive Isobel Thomson commented:
“NALS is the only independent licensing scheme for lettings and management agents operating in the private rented sector and requires its firms to meet strict accounting standards in handling clients’ money. NALS is fully supportive of ICAEW’s accreditation of software firms which will ultimately facilitate agents evidencing to their accountants that they are compliant with NALS Accounting Standards and are delighted to accredit Reapit as a NALS Approved Service Provider.”
Craig McLellan who manages the ICAEW accreditation scheme commented:
“On behalf of the ICAEW and its membership, I’d like to congratulate Reapit on achieving accreditation and welcome the company to the ICAEW’s list of accredited software.
“As part of our accreditation process, products must meet our rigorous quality standard. We are pleased to say that Reapit reaches the standard for our Property Management and Letting Software accreditation.”
Matthew Goddard, Head of Product Strategy at Reapit told us:
“Despite only recently developing our Client Accounting software we were keen to complete the necessary due diligence by ensuring our product was independently verified as compliant by the only regulatory bodies who carry out audits for Client Accounting software, the ICAEW and NALS. Reapit are proud to be only the second software provider to successfully obtain these accreditations.”
NALS actively supports the use of digital technology and encourages licenced firms to embrace it to better serve landlords and tenants, improve efficiency, and save time and money, thereby developing a competitive & commercial edge.
NALS is the National Approved Letting Scheme, and is the most respected and recognised scheme of its type; offering superb value for money for agents, and complete peace of mind for tenants and landlords.
Please follow us on Twitter and visit our YouTube Channel.
by Inhouse Reporter
15. April 2013 17:24
NALS has learned in a letter from the Housing Minister, Mark Prisk, that the government has introduced a late amendment to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill which would give powers to require letting and management agents in the private rented sector and managing agents in the residential leasehold sector to offer landlords and tenants access to approved redress schemes.
The bill is set to be debated in the House of Commons tomorrow (16/04/2013).
Isobel Thomson, NALS Chief Executive said: “We welcome this common sense approach to improving the consumer experience of renting and letting, and support the Government’s amendment as a considered measure.”
NALS is committed to raising standards in the private rented sector and this move would help deliver this, allowing tenants and landlords to immediately make informed choices. We believe this is a sensible alternative to the heavy-handed bureaucracy of a formal regulatory regime which we believe would lead to increased rents for tenants and ultimately stifle entry into the market. All NALS agents under our strict registration criteria are required to be part of an ombudsman scheme.
NALS believes that the introduction of mandatory membership of an ombudsman scheme is the first step and there is more industry organisations can achieve. We need to work collaboratively for the interest of the consumer on initiatives such as the SAFEagent campaign to raise awareness among consumers of the protection they are afforded by using an agent who is part of a Client Money Protection Scheme. We see SAFEagent as wholly complementary to the proposed amendment for the benefit of the consumer.
We await the outcome of the debate in Parliament.”
NALS is the National Approved Letting Scheme, and is the most respected and recognised scheme of its type; offering superb value for money for agents, and complete peace of mind for tenants and landlords.
Please follow us on Twitter and visit our YouTube Channel.
by Inhouse Reporter
9. April 2013 17:08
One of the benefits of being a NALS licenced firm is access to a free health and safety/employment law helpline, run for our licenced firms by Peninsula.
Peninsula also run regular events on important issues, which are free for NALS members to attend.
In this blog, Nick Babington of Peninsula answers a reader's question: "Can you ignore a job applicant with a criminal record?".
Q. I’m currently in the recruitment process, and would like to know the position with dealing with applications from individuals with criminal records. Do I need to treat them differently?
A. Employers are usually interested in a potential employee’s previous history including, perhaps, any criminal convictions. You should be aware, though, that certain criminal offences could be erased from a person’s record after set periods of time. Legislation sets these time periods after which a criminal is deemed to have been rehabilitated and the offence ‘spent’. A spent conviction is one which should play no part in the recruitment and selection process.
The time periods of rehabilitation increase with the severity of the offence. Briefly, cautions, reprimands and warnings are deemed to be spent immediately, imprisonment for up to 6 months is spent after 7 years; imprisonment for 6 – 30 months is spent after 10; and imprisonment for more than 30 months is never spent. Rehabilitation periods are shorter when the offence was committed when an individual was younger than 18.
Employers should generally not ask for information on spent convictions, whether on application forms or during an interview. There is an exception, however, where the employment concerned is one for which offences are never considered as spent e.g. in legal, medical or accountancy professions, or where care of children or vulnerable adults is concerned. Therefore the type of job for which you are recruiting will determine whether you can ask about spent convictions or not.
Many employers make job offers subject to the provision of satisfactory criminal records checks where these are legally required for certain jobs in the provision of care. Disclosure of spent and unspent convictions will be provided and this can be accessed via the Criminal Records Bureau (which is become the Disclosure and Barring Service in December 2012), Disclosure Scotland or Access Northern Ireland. In Scotland, employers must check PVG Scheme membership for job in the care industry.
A job offer can be withdrawn if the records check presents evidence which would make the individual unsuitable to carry out the job.
For any further clarification, please contact Nick Babington on 0789 603 6993.
NALS is the National Approved Letting Scheme, and is the most respected and recognised scheme of its type; offering superb value for money for agents, and complete peace of mind for tenants and landlords.
Please follow us on Twitter and visit our YouTube Channel.
by Inhouse Reporter
3. April 2013 09:10
NALS CEO, Isobel Thomson, was quoted in an article in The Independent on 29th April, 2013.
The article was titled "Calls for rental agents to be properly regulated". Following the ruling from the Advertising Standards Authority earlier in the month which stated that letting agents must display information on fees in advertisements, the article considered the need for regulation in the private rented sector.
You can read the full article >>> here.
Meanwhile, in The Sunday Times on 31st March, in an 'Ask the Experts' column, a tenant is recommended to check whether their letting agent is a member of NALS (and/or ARLA) in reference to a question about letting agent fees.
NALS is the National Approved Letting Scheme, and is the most respected and recognised scheme of its type; offering superb value for money for agents, and complete peace of mind for tenants and landlords.
Please follow us on Twitter and visit our YouTube Channel.
by Inhouse Reporter
26. March 2013 09:09
Leading lettings agency firms came together on 21st March with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to discuss the implementation of the recent Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruling on advertising of fees. The meeting, chaired by NALS, gave agents an opportunity to voice concerns and seek guidance on compliance with the ruling.
A recent report issued by the OFT contains recommendations that they are considering further for better up front information and for fees to be set out in a clear tariff of charges.
Whilst there was overwhelming consensus among the agents that transparency for tenants was of the utmost importance, urgent clarification was needed on the ruling’s practical application to avoid misleading consumers. The agents who attended all welcomed the OFT’s willingness to consider their queries and engage with them.
Isobel Thomson Chief Executive of NALS said: “Since the ASA ruling the industry has been trying to reach a conclusion as to how agents can comply. Given that the ultimate sanction the ASA has available is referral of non-compliant agents to the OFT or Trading Standards, it made sense to meet with them in light of their regulatory role at the earliest opportunity. We await to hear the outcome of their consideration of some of the practical issues raised.”
The meeting was attended by:
Foxtons
Hunters
Leaders
Northwood
Sequence
Spicerhaart
Touchstone
Winkworth
Your Move
NALS is the National Approved Letting Scheme, and is the most respected and recognised scheme of its type; offering superb value for money for agents, and complete peace of mind for tenants and landlords.
Please follow us on Twitter and visit our YouTube Channel.
by Inhouse Reporter
19. March 2013 16:07
One of the benefits of being a NALS licenced firm is access to a free health and safety/employment law helpline, run for our licenced firms by Peninsula.
Peter Done, Managing Director of Peninsula Business Services talks about how to get the best out of an interview and how to choose the right candidate.
Interviewing can take place for a number of different reasons, selection interviewing for employment, for promotion, for disciplinary reasons, for capability reasons, for health reasons, as exit interviews, etc. This article will concentrate primarily on interviewing for employment, although many of the points will apply to most forms of interview.
Presumably the applications have flooded in! Presumably there are many more than could possibly be interviewed. Therefore, some form of initial screening has to take place. Ideally, this should be carried out by the person(s) who will actually conduct the interviews. It is preferable, if possible, to have more than one person conduct the short-listing and interviewing as it helps to minimise personal bias and it spreads the load – however there may not be sufficient management in SME’s to achieve this!
Compare the information contained in the application to the job description and personnel specification to identify those with the potential to do the job. (Do not set out with a pre-conceived idea of how many should be on the short-list). That “potential” should be in respect of job related criteria only and should be applied consistently across all applicants. Under no circumstances should account be taken of race, sex, disability, trade union membership, religion (Northern Ireland
) or age as that would be discriminatory apart from the few genuine exceptions allowed, i.e. it is permissible to audition women only to play the part of a woman in a film. It may be useful, or even essential in some circumstances, to produce a short-list matrix with qualifications/experience recorded against applicants and those scoring more than ‘X’ are short-listed.
Those not invited to interview should be sent a polite “thanks, but no thanks” letter, a copy of which should be kept with their application, and all such letters, in one file for that particular job advert. Each should contain a note as to why the applicant was not invited to interview (keep especially the matrix chart as it is not unheard of for rejected applicants to complain about not being invited to interview and it is enormously helpful to the employer (and to the applicant!) if the process can be seen to be fair and non-discriminatory.
This file of unsuccessful applicants should be kept for at least 12 months, but no longer, unless special circumstances apply. (Although the Information Commission advises in the Employment Practices Data Protection Code for Recruitment and Selection, that such data should be destroyed after four months, many claims for sex or race discrimination can be made up to six or eight months after the act complained of, and even those periods can be extended to 8 and 10 months if Equality and Human Rights commission is assisting the applicant in their claim. Therefore four months is too short a time).
Send a letter/e-mail to the short-list personnel inviting them to interview. Make sure it clearly states where, when, to whom to report and whether this is a preliminary interview or the only one in the process. There is one further requirement that needs to be met at this stage. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 requires that disabled people be provided with a level playing field for interview with other applicants. Some applications may reveal that the applicant is disabled. Others will not. To ensure therefore fairness, at the interview stage, the potential employer needs to find out if any special procedures need to be adopted, e.g. wheelchair access, sign language interpreter, so that the disabled applicant receives treatment on a par with that accorded to a non-disabled person. Ask, in the letter inviting to interview, if any special arrangements need to be made and if the applicant indicates they do, arrange them.
Most people consider that there are two purposes to an interview; for the employer to find out all they (properly) can about the applicant and for the applicant to find out all they can about the employer/employment. There is a third. Usually more people are rejected than are appointed. It is a wise employer who recognises that increasing numbers of rejected applicants, who have been badly, unprofessionally or lackadaisically interviewed, will build up in the surrounding areas creating a poor reputation for the organisation locally. Properly, professionally, interviewed people will probably still go away feeling upset but hopefully they will be feeling regrets that they were unsuccessful in joining what was obviously a great set-up rather than disappointment and relief that they have been unsuccessful!
Prepare before the interview to ensure that they start on time, that there are no interruptions and a structure is decided on and followed in the same manner for each interviewee. Consider carefully job descriptions, personnel specifications and applications to identify what questions need to be asked. Again, where possible, the interview should be conducted by more than one person if resources allow.
At the interview put the applicant at ease, outline the organisation and its future plans. Ask the applicant open questions to expand on the information in the application and concentrate on those issues which will influence the decision to offer employment or not. Open questions are those which cannot be answered yes or no. For example ask “why did you leave your last job?”, rather than “have you left your last job?”, since it will produce a more useful response. Take notes – ensure especially that important comments, ones which might be decisive, are in some way noted.
Do not ask any questions of a discriminatory nature. It is unacceptable to ask women if they plan to have children? Who will look after your children if you come back to work?, etc.
Some questions must be asked of those destined to work with children, or vulnerable adults, regarding them not having any convictions, or record, which would affect their employability in such sensitive roles. There are also questions which need to be asked regarding the Immigration and Asylum rules. These are so detailed there is no room to deal with them here, but be aware that they exist and that they might apply to you, so find out!
Allow the applicant to ask questions and answer them honestly. Answers given in the interview could be relied on by the individual as forming part of his/her contract of employment!
Tell the applicant when he/she can expect to hear the outcome. If there is a second round of interviews those not invited should receive a letter “thanks but no thanks” and those for final interview a letter, as before explaining, where, when, with whom, etc.
Final interviews should concentrate on the requirements of the job and the candidates’ suitability for it. From objective criteria rank the candidates. Offer the job to the first choice candidate, hold in reserve second and third and send “thanks but no thanks” letter to the others. If preferred choice accepts send “thanks but no thanks” letters to number two and three. If preferred choice rejects offer, offer then to number two, etc., assuming that they are acceptable of course!
Details of rejected applicants following interview should be treated in the same manner as those rejected without being offered an interview.
Remember starting the wrong person can be disastrously expensive. Take time and care to do it properly so that risks are minimised. To minimise risks even further do not write inappropriate comments on interview notes – they just may come back and haunt you!
Contact: Nicholas Babington nick.babington@peninsula-uk.com 07896 036993
NALS is the National Approved Letting Scheme, and is the most respected and recognised scheme of its type; offering superb value for money for agents, and complete peace of mind for tenants and landlords.
Please follow us on Twitter and visit our YouTube Channel.
by Inhouse Reporter
12. March 2013 17:09
Letting Agents and Landlords in England & Wales will know The Deposit Protection Service (The DPS) as the only custodial tenancy deposit scheme. On April 1 this year The DPS are moving into the insured market for the first time. DPS director Kevin Firth explains the reasons for the move and the challenges they face.
Perhaps I should explain some of the terms before we start: A ‘custodial’ service means just that, we act as the custodian of the deposit for the duration of the tenancy and have responsibility for its prompt return when the tenancy comes to an end. The service is free. An ‘insured scheme’ involves the payment of a small fee to cover against misappropriation of funds by either the landlord or agent, but doesn’t involve physically handing over the deposit.
So why have we taken the decision to offer an insured product when we already run an extremely successful custodial scheme? Well, we believe there is room in the market place for another insured scheme, and especially one which can offer choice. For the first time agents will be able to choose which scheme to use at the point of protection – custodial or insured - from one online account.
We researched the proposition extensively and know the insured scheme will throw up some new challenges for us:
First – we won’t be holding onto the money as we do with our custodial service. That means in the majority of cases we will only hear from tenants or landlords when there’s a dispute over the deposit.
So, in essence, what agents are buying with an insured scheme is access to our Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) service in the event of a communication breakdown between landlord and tenant.
Our ADR team are impartial, legally trained adjudicators who will examine the evidence presented to them and come to a fair conclusion as to whether the deposit should go to either the agent or tenant, or if there should be a split. The creation of the ADR process was a key part of the regulations which brought deposit protection into existence.
A possible sudden increase in demand for our ADR team’s services means we will need the capacity to deal with that when and if it comes. Luckily, the size and nature of The DPS means we can scale up and down very quickly.
Second – a new product means a new due diligence process and NALS have been a great help to us in this regard.
The tenancy market is both large and challenging. So, to make life simple and safer for everyone, whilst we will accept all landlords, we’ve taken the decision to only work with regulated agents. Unregulated agents will of course still have access to our custodial scheme.
We firmly believe that all agents should have membership of one of the trade bodies and access to their client money protection schemes. The introduction of Safe Agent has really helped to raise awareness of this important issue by having one easy to understand message with a nice clear brand, and I would urge all agents to become a member. We will therefore expect to see proof of membership of the industry body together with details of their client money protection. We are very grateful to NALS for their offer of assistance with the due diligence process.
Finally – we’re launching on April 1 which is not only Easter Monday and April Fool’s Day but also the same day Northern Ireland’s tenancy protection laws come into force. Naturally we’re in that race too.
So a busy return from holiday for some here – and no real holiday at all for others!
It’s been a great deal of work to get to this point. Far too much to list here. But it’s nearly across the line now and we’re just as excited as any company would be as an excellent new service is readied for official launch.
To find out more about out insured scheme visit our website.
NALS is the National Approved Letting Scheme, and is the most respected and recognised scheme of its type; offering superb value for money for agents, and complete peace of mind for tenants and landlords.
Please follow us on Twitter and visit our YouTube Channel.
by Inhouse Reporter
6. March 2013 11:48
NALS has appointed Sheila Drew Smith OBE as its new Chair.
Formerly a non executive director of NALS, Sheila replaces Caroline Pickering, who has held the post since 2006.
An economist by background with specific expertise in governance, finance and planning, Sheila has extensive experience as a senior executive in both the public and private sectors. She has previously held roles as an Economic Adviser in HM Treasury and as a partner with predecessor firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
More recently, Sheila has gained substantial experience as a non executive Board Member in the public sector – including regulatory bodies – including audit and risk committees at the Housing Corporation, the Office of the Regulator of Social Housing and the Audit Commission.
As well as sitting on the NALS board, Sheila is currently also a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life and the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation.
Sheila’s appointment comes as record numbers of people are living in rented accommodation – a fact that she believes, makes the role of the letting agent more important than ever before. Sheila said: “We’ve all read the headlines about ‘generation rent’ and the burgeoning private rentals sector, both of which inevitably shine the spotlight on the role of the letting agent.
“For an industry that already faces scrutiny over issues relating to the lack of transparency of fees and so-called rogue agents, there has never been a more pivotal time for the industry to step up and unite in its commitment to self regulation and promotion of the very highest professional standards.
“I welcome this new opportunity to continue the great strides made by Caroline Pickering and the team.”
NALS is the National Approved Letting Scheme, and is the most respected and recognised scheme of its type; offering superb value for money for agents, and complete peace of mind for tenants and landlords.
Please follow us on Twitter and visit our YouTube Channel.
