You can be sure that any agents who display the NALS logo are very closely monitored, and there are certain conditions that need to be met before we are able to accept their application to the scheme. They must:
- Have current Professional Indemnity Insurance
- Have a designated client account with the bank. (Those firms who are part of NALS and members of ARLA, NAEA, RICS or the Law Society provide accounting information to their relevant body to meet their NALS licence criteria)
- Commit to being part of a Client Money Protection Scheme
- Commit to offer services to landlords and tenants meeting all of NALS Service Standards
- Have a written Customer Complaints Procedure which offers independent redress should any complaint from a landlord or tenant not be re-solved in-house
After a firm has been given NALS status, that's not the end of the story. We continue to monitor every single firm, to ensure our compliance requirements are being met.
On an ongoing basis firms must supply NALS with an Accountant’s Report confirming compliance with NALS Accounting Standards. For firms who sign up to the Scheme and who have been trading for less than a year, they must supply an Interim Accountant’s Report after six months in NALS, then another, six months after their Financial Year End.
All of those firms registered with NALS must renew their licence annually, and as part of that process they must produce up-to-date evidence of their compliance with our entry requirements.
In addition to these conditions, NALS also undertakes random checks on firms’ client accounts, as well as monitoring feedback from the ombudsman schemes operating in the sector on the complaints they deal with about NALS firms.
All this information is made available to the NALS Board, enabling them to review and revoke a firm's NALS licence if deemed necessary.
With such attention and effort invested in qualifying NALS firms, its easy to see why more and more people are choosing to rely on NALS as the most effective and trusted accreditation of it's kind.