Plans for new measures to help create a fairer property management system that works for everyone have been announced by the Communities Secretary Sajid Javid.

With over 4.2 million leasehold homes in the country and service charges reaching between £2.5bn and £3.5bn a year, the Communities Secretary will say the government is determined to fix the problems in the property management industry, drive down costs and protect consumers from the small minority of rogue agents.

The problem isn’t just for leaseholders, but for some of the 4.5 million tenants in the rental sector too – with overcharged costs for repairs and services often passed down to tenants.

Since 2010, government has taken action to require all letting and management agents to belong to a redress scheme, and we have introduced a range of tougher measures to target rogue landlords and agents in the private rented sector.

As part of this new call for evidence, government is seeking views on whether regulatory overhaul of the sector is needed, measures to protect consumers from unfair costs and overpriced service charges, ways to more power in the hands of consumers by giving leaseholders more say over their agent

It will ask if a new independent regulatory body is needed - and if separate bodies should be established, for both leasehold and private rented management, and letting agents.
While the sector is partly self regulated - through professional bodies such as the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA), ARLA Propertymark (formally Association of Residential Letting Agents) and the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS), which have a code of conduct – other property agents operate outside of any system and can provide a poor deal for consumers.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said: "This is supposed to be the age of the empowered consumer – yet in property management, we’re still living in the past.

"Today we are showing our determination to give power back to consumers so they have the service they expect and deserve, as part of my drive to deliver transparency and fairness for the growing number of renters and leaseholders.

"Our proposed changes to regulate the industry will give landlords, renters and leaseholders the confidence they need to know that their agents must comply with the rules."

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