Council Guy Posted September 7, 2011 Report Share Posted September 7, 2011 Hi, I work for a local authority Housing Team. My council has been looking at Landlord Accreditation Schemes, and speaking to other local authorities it seems that many are closing thier schemes and instead promoting schemes run by the NLA, RLA or Landlords Guild. Some schemes include a requiement that accredited landlords have thier properties inspected to join, but this is time consuming and means that officers would spend time inspecting decent properties when instead of dealing with genuine complaints. The idea we are considering is promoting any accreditation scheme run by one of the above or other reputable landlords organisations. The schemes would be voluntary for LLs to join, and would include a code of conduct, self certification that they are 'fit and proper' landlords, and deliver training and professional development to landlords who join. Each scheme has a fee of around £80 or so per year for LLs to join. Once the LLs join they would attend a training day, or undertake on-line training and have access to a library of useful documements and publications. My question is, have any joined any of these schemes, and what is your view of them? Was the training useful to you? etc. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest caravanj Posted September 7, 2011 Report Share Posted September 7, 2011 You can't beat the rapid learning curve on which a landlord embarks when being shafted by a rogue tenant!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mortitia Posted September 8, 2011 Report Share Posted September 8, 2011 Council Guy - Am I right in assuming that your council's landlord accreditation scheme was aimed mainly at landlords that take DSS tenants? I feel I am a good and reasonable landlord and have undergone the accelerated learning procedure as described by Caravanj but I don't feel I need my local council to accredit me in any way . I don't take DSS tenants. I find running my portfolio and doing a full time job plenty to deal with without joining other groups of landlords. One of the reasons this and other sites flourish is because you can dip in for help and advice when it suits, it is easy to join, anonymous and it is free. Save the council's money I say. Mortitia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Council Guy Posted September 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2011 Council Guy - Am I right in assuming that your council's landlord accreditation scheme was aimed mainly at landlords that take DSS tenants? I feel I am a good and reasonable landlord and have undergone the accelerated learning procedure as described by Caravanj but I don't feel I need my local council to accredit me in any way . I don't take DSS tenants. I find running my portfolio and doing a full time job plenty to deal with without joining other groups of landlords. One of the reasons this and other sites flourish is because you can dip in for help and advice when it suits, it is easy to join, anonymous and it is free. Save the council's money I say. Mortitia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carryon Regardless Posted September 8, 2011 Report Share Posted September 8, 2011 Isn't selective licencing aimed at encompassing this ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Council Guy Posted September 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2011 Hi Mortitia, We don't have any particular landlords in mind for this scheme and are not proposing to spend any money on these schemes other than the time to promote them at our landlord forum meetings and through our website. It would be up to LLs if they wanted to join any of the schemes and be purely voluntary on their part. I agree this site is a good source of information and advice, and there is loads of stuff on the web if you need to find an answer to a question or help wtih a problem. I suppose the thing about training is, provided it is delivered by a sufficiently knowledgeable person, that you can learn things you didn't know you didn't know if that makes sense. At our last landlords forum meeting for example we had a tax expert there advising landlords on issues around capital gains tax, income tax and other forms of taxation, if was a really interesting talk and the LLs there had lots of questions around what can be a very complex subject as you no doubt know. I appreciate LLs are very busy people, after attending the one days training, the three landlords bodies who run these schemes only require between 5 and 10 hours per year 'professional development' to keep up the accreditation status, and attending a landlords forum meeting can count towards the hours. Having said all this, I would be really interested to know if anyone has joined an accreditation scheme or attended any form of LL training - and in particular what they thought of it. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathyr Posted September 10, 2011 Report Share Posted September 10, 2011 Hi Council Guy my local authority has been running an accreditation scheme for about the last 3 years and all they ask is that landlords send in their current gas safety certs, no further inspection required unless you are applying for grants. They are not doing any training or development, up till this year it has been free to join and there has been a landlords forum to raise issues of interest. OK so far.... this year they have joined forces with a neighbouring LA and relaunched the scheme, suddenly there is a £60 fee to join. WHAT?????? this just reeks of revenue raising and is enough to put me off having anything more to do with the scheme. there is no way my local council can add £60+ of value to my business. I have been a landlord for 15 years and probably know more about property letting than the housing team. my houses and flats are easy to let because they are warm, clean, decently furnished, in the right location, at the right price and I am nice friendly person who doesn't look like skipping off with a deposit. whether or not I am council approved is of no interest to my potential tenants, I have never been asked this EVER! so by all means set up your scheme but do not expect good experienced landlords to feel the need to join, as others have said we tend to take what professional advice we need from other sources like NLA. I would much sooner the council put all their resources into getting tough with the rogue landlords that give us all a bad name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Council Guy Posted September 12, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2011 Thanks NiceLandlady, I take your point, your council would need to explain how you were getting £60 of additional value from your scheme otherwise why would you join? The schemes we're are looking at promoting are run by the RLA, NLA and Landlords Guild, they all seem to have useful training options for lanldords who want them. We are not looking at charging anything ourselves because the services we provide are already funded from the Council Tax and HMO licensing income. We would only promote the accreditation schemes, not provide them. It's a pity that training was not part of the scheme your council had, although I have read the stuff on the websites of the above organisations about how useful the training is, I would rather hear from landlords about what they thought. Cheers Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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