Sam's Word 8 – Trick or Treat?

Sam's Word

As I write, it is Hallowe'en. Strictly Come Dancing has just aired its annual special and Eastender Jake Wood had an off night, while Frankie and her partner Kevin scored a ten.

We have had two trick or treaters at our (home) door last night, and we were ready with the Quality Street.

So no tricks were needed.

However, there are certainly both tricks and treats in the world of estate agency.

We're one of the treats. Edward Ashdale estate agents is now an established and respected name since two like-minded businesses came together to become Edward Ashdale and work across Lambeth and Bromley. We do good things. Some are exceptional. Such as consistently accompanying people on viewings. The safest thing to do and the best way for people to get all of our expertise, all of the time. Such as consistently using professional photography. We're trying to attract buyers to the homes we sell for people and only the best will do.

There are also the tricks, or tricksters, out there. In our latest newsletter, I said that, “With property prices at strong levels the opportunities for buy-to-let investment are scarce, so if you are thinking about investing in property it’s more important than ever to choose carefully so as to maximise the yield and chance of capital growth. Properties with onerous maintenance and service charges are always likely to impact on yield and capital growth, so fully investigate any planned maintenance a building may have ahead. There are certain property management companies that have to be avoided, given their culture and practices. In an industry that is allowed to operate unregulated a poor leasehold management company or freeholder can make a Landlord’s investment a very unhappy experience.”

An article (here) from 2007 by a disenchanted former estate agent went further. He wrote before the The Property Ombudsman (TPO) came into being, which was a welcome development, though arguably even now one without enough legal teeth.

The list of horrors the agent came up with included:

1. Gazumping. When a deal has been agreed some agents still show people around the property hoping for a better offer.

2. Value a property at a low price - and then sell it to a friend or colleague.

3. Use scare tactics such as pretending to receive offers to get people to make a higher offer.

4. Neglect to pass on all offers to vendor in hope of achieving a higher one later on.

5. Refuse to reduce commission if the price is reduced.

6. Overvalue houses to secure business from sellers.

7. Supply customers with fake documents to help them secure a mortgage.

8. Make up a very low offer. This shocks the seller into accepting a genuine offer which is far lower 
than the original valuation.

9. Fake evidence that other properties in the area have sold for an overly high price.

10. Erect for sale/sold signs at homes the agent had nothing to do with to give a false impression.

Bringing things up to date, this year the Property Ombudsman reported a sharp increase in the number of consumer complaints for the residential lettings sector, ahead of the requirement that came into force on 1st October 2014 for every letting agent to register with an approved redress scheme.

The figures, published in The Property Ombudsman's 2014 Interim Report, show that 1,187 complaints were resolved in total about both sales and lettings issues between 1 January and 30 June 2014, with 721 complaints (61%) made against letting agents – a 37% increase on the same period last year.

The Ombudsman upheld 74% of the complaints made by landlords and tenants against letting agents.

Christopher Hamer, the Property Ombudsman, explained, "Up until now there has been no legal requirement for any letting agent to register with a redress scheme, which has left thousands of tenants and landlords unable to access our free, fair and independent dispute resolution service. That is shown by the fact that around 20% of the initial consumer enquiries we received in this period related to lettings agents that were not signed up to TPO. I am pleased to note that the new legislation will change that and we've already seen nearly 1,000 firms register this year, making us the largest redress scheme with 11,744 lettings offices under my jurisdiction and following our Code of Practice, which sets out what service consumers should receive from member firms.
'The sharp increase in the number of lettings agents registering for redress with TPO, combined with TPO's increased profile and the ever-growing number of households renting goes some way to explain why we've seen such a significant increase in the number of lettings complaints, with more than half of our total enquiries now coming from landlords and tenants that feel they have been treated unfairly. The new legislation will make it an offence for any ‘rogue' agent that has not registered to trade and they will a face of up to £5,000."

Key highlights from TPO's latest Interim Report reveal that:

• Registered agents (p7): more than 4,000 additional agents registered with TPO, with sales and lettings representing the biggest growth areas. A total of 30, 128 agents registered with TPO across all jurisdictions – a 15% increase on the same period last year

• Consumer enquiries (p8): More than 8,474 consumers contacted TPO regarding a property dispute (a 4.6% increase on the same period last year). More than half of all the enquiries received were regarding lettings disputes with 4,759 enquiries logged (56.1% of all enquiries)

• Complaints (p9): Complaints grew by 37% overall with 1,187 cases reviewed, of which 721 were against letting agents (up 37%) and 544 were against sales agents (up 42%). The Ombudsman upheld 74% of all lettings complaints while 61% of all sales complaints were upheld

• Consumer case studies (p10): The Ombudsman hand-picked a selection of case studies to highlight issues varying from death and inventories, owed rent, visas, pets, ex partners, planning permission and fraud to share an insight into the cases reviewed and awards given
  

To view TPO's 2014 Interim Report, please visit http://www.tpos.co.uk/quarterly_report.htm.

What is The Property Ombudsman?

The Property Ombudsman (TPO) scheme offers an independent and impartial dispute resolution service to consumers who have been unable to resolve their disputes with a registered agent. The scheme was established in 1990. The Ombudsman can provide redress to place the consumer back in the position they were before the complaint arose, achieving a full and final settlement of the dispute and all claims made by either party. Where appropriate, the Ombudsman can make compensatory awards in individual cases up to a maximum of £25,000 for actual and quantifiable loss and/or for aggravation, distress and/or inconvenience caused by the actions of a registered agent.

TPO is free to all consumers. Agents pay a single annual subscription covering them for sales, lettings, commercial, international and auction activities. TPO does not charge case fees.
At 1 August 2014 over 13,200 sales offices and 11,600 letting offices were registered with TPO. The TPO estimates that these figures represent 95% of sales agents and 65% of lettings agents operating within the UK.

What does this mean? 

Hopefully, that tenants and landlords will receive better treatment and experience less tricks in future. 

I believe that everything that is done to improve the behaviour, practices and reputation of estate agents can only be a good thing.

Sam Samuel, MNAEA CRLM,  November 2014


You can view our earlier posts in our Index here.

St Matthews Project gains an outstanding award

Hot on the heels of our last blog post on something excellent that is British, we're kicking off (!) October with another one.

This time, we're talking football.Specifically, the St Mattews Project in Tulse Hill. The project, and the award, are probably best introduced by information received from James Alexander, a Trustee of the Project:

"As a trustee of the St Matthews Project I (James) wanted to let you all know that on Thursday evening the St Matthews Project won the FA Charter Standard Club of the Year for London award and also the wider regional award.  This means that out of 4500 football based projects throughout London and the surrounding area the FA deemed the St Matthews Project as achieving the most over the past 12 months. As you can imagine this is an amazing achievement and is real recognition of the hard work Lee has put in over the past 10 years.

"This comes on the back of the project receiving the Ambition Quality Mark earlier in the year recognising the high standard of the projects policies and procedures. 

"For those who didn't know the breadth of the projects work, here is a snippet of what St Matthews offers our over 100 weekly participants

• Weekly parents play football for 3-4 year olds and their parent
• Weekly turn up and play sessions for ages 6-9, 9-12 and 16+
• Twice weekly team sessions (training and matches) for under 10, under 11s, under 13s, under 15s and under 16s
• Weekly girls football
• FA level 1 and 2 coaching courses
• NVQs in sports coaching

"Alongside this Lee and the coaches spend countless hours supporting the young people deal with family issues, liaising with schools and supporting young people navigate their way through adolescence. Personally I take great joy is seeing how the project has been able to employ a number of our ex players as coaches.  This Saturday for example over half of the coaches were ex players who have done their coaching qualifications with us and now work for the project.

"Well done Lee and everyone involved for your amazing achievement."

It is a real pleasure to share this sort of thing in this blog.

 You can browse our other blog topics in the Index here.  

Ways to make housing affordable

Teepol - cleaning up at the British Family Fayre

A lot of attention is being given to affordable housing, social housing, and the need for more housing. Indeed, the latest development is the Conservative party's proposal for discounted housing for first-time buyers under forty years old, as reported here by the BBC.  Most of these schemes simply reflect the fact that demand for housing and home ownership continues to outstrip supply, which has a lot to do with ongoing, and in some cases, record-breaking rises in house prices.

As responsible estate agents, we at Edward Ashdale certainly hope that the initiatives under way do help people find homes at an affordable cost, though it is certainly true that in both the owned and rental sectors the cost of a home does not compare well to the income of many people.

One consideration, then, is people's income. Having more income is one way to afford a better home. That is one reason why we have been happy to help the Tulse Hill Community Market to take off. It is an outlet for local people to trade goods and services and, in many cases, the goods such as jewellery and art are ones that the traders have created themselves. This is the kind of place where may people have started selling and begun businesses that grow and grow. It is easy to forget that even massive businesses start somewhere, just as Marks & Spencer did, with £5 and a Penny Bazaar. Even car boot sales, where again people sometimes sell the things they have started to make (or bake), can be an important step for some people. So we welcome these too, and note that a new one in Brixton has been set up, named BrixtonBooty, and we wish that well - see @BrixtonBooty on Twitter.


So, we also view efforts elsewhere to boost the economy, large and small, with approval. There are many artisan markets around, one instance being the Gingham Goose Craft Market in Hayes - Twitter @GinghamGoose. There are also British manufacturers who have, despite the demise of many proud names, clung on and prospered down the years. One example is Teepol, a cleaning products manufacturer in Orpington, which has been in business since the 1960's. They recently appeared at the British Family Fayre. The British Family are an interesting phenomenon in themselves, having chosen to buy only British goods for a year, which gave them a unique twelve months and a lot of publicity for British producers.  On Twitter, @BritishFamily.

So, in short, good luck to the government with what it is doing for the housing sector, and even better luck to the people making this country prosperous.
  
You can browse our other blog topics in the Index here.  

It's A Selhurst Thing

When we attended the recent Tulse Hill Community Market Fun Day, an initiative we (Edward Ashdale Estate Agents) are proud to support, we met someone interesting. Of course, we always meet interesting people at the markets and other activities they put on. This time, when we blogged subsequently, here, we focused on Constable Douglas-Smith, a local policeman who came along.

However, we also met former Tulse Hill resident and strong supporter of positive community interaction, Sadie Campbell. Sadie told us about something she is launching in the Selhurst and Croydon area of London.

First, the 18th of August sees "It's a Selhurst Thing", a Community Day and Creative Arts and Photographic Exhibition in Acts House, 30 Union Road, Croydon CR0 2XU.

Then, between 1st and 7th September, in the Sun Lounge of the Fairfield Halls in Croydon, CR9 1DG, the exhibition is in place over a longer period of days.

Sadie told us that, "This project has three main aims all of which are of lasting community benefit:
 

1) [helping people to] Gain transferable skills. Approximately 20 local people  aged 8- 70+ years will support the project, some volunteering in roles that develop their knowledge of project and event development and to learn new skills, such as photography.

2) [to]  Enrich Community Cohesion and through partnership working produce an exhibition depicting the likes and dislikes of people living in the Selhurst/Croydon area. These stories will allow the meek and mild to speak to decision makers and members of the wider community, as the exhibition will cover 100 years of Croydon life. It will travel through the borough allowing people to add pieces to it. Finally, it will be archived to serve as a historical record of how we used to live, work and play.

3) [to serve as a] Memorial. The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Fico Dougan, who was just 17 years old when he was tragically murdered on the 25th September 2013 in Croydon.  As a ‘Community Call For Positive Action,’ we hope that this project will be a start of the Fico Dougan Award, where local people will help raise money annually, to offer financial support to ambitious people who want to quickly access opportunities, i.e., access training, education or to start off a business idea, etc., who would not otherwise be able to afford the fees involved.This will serve as a lasting memorial in Fico’s honour to finish the educational journey that he started, but unfortunately could not complete."

If you can, go and see either event - or both events. If you're local, add a piece to the travelling exhibition. 

The poster that is at the top of this blog post offers some more detail and Sadie's contact details, if you would like to get in touch about having the exhibition near you. Her email is sadiecampbell@hotmail.co.uk.   

You can browse our other blog topics in the Index here.

Helping the thin blue line

Constable Douglas-Smith

Sometimes it is surprising how things come together. We're fresh from supporting the Met Police's Junior Citizen initiative by supporting 90 children to take part in activities promoting child safety, health and wellbeing - this is an earlier example. Our Tulse Hill office is looking forward to receiving the certificate we will get acknowledging our help, but helping the children is the real point.

We didn't think about it at the time, but when we supported the new Community Market in Tulse Hill, that too supported children and the police. This came home to us when we went to the Fun Day run yesterday by the Community Market at their old Scout Hut location. The market itself is about to move to a coffee shop at 357 Norwood Road, just down from our Tulse Hill office. The Fun Day, though, featured local traders, a few only just starting out, and people including (sometimes face-painted) children. It also featured Constable Douglas-Smith, pictured. On his beat in the community, the constable is well-used to being photographed as he pops into local events, keeping up relationships with people. However, if there were no Community Market, there would be less positive things being done in the community and one less opportunity for Constable Douglas-Smith to catch up with people in a nice setting. So, we are very happy that we have supported the market, and the Met's Junior Citizen initiative, and that we met Constable Douglas-Smith, our local example of the thin blue line of British policing.

We look forward to seeing him again.

You can read about who else we meet at the Community Markets and about their services and contact details in our post here.

You can browse our other blog topics in the Index here. 

Defining what estate agency means in the 21st century

Our three proud partners: John, John, and Sam

We have already stated our values for all to see and we've already captured some of our testimonials in this blog. However, recently the two came together in a very welcome way.

We received these new testimonials:

“Thanks for letting my flat in Kenley and finding me the best tenants I could wish for! It is testimony that you have sailed the rough waters of the turbulent past markets & survived, this is because you are jolly nice, honest and smart. And it is not often one can say that about people in your profession.” – Paul

“I really don’t exaggerate when I say how much your help has eased this whole process for me, from beginning to end. Yesterday was a good news day. Not only did we complete but my brother who was recently diagnosed with cancer got a clear CT scan. So, as you can imagine, what with that and the flat drama I think I would have crumbled but for all the help you lot have given me. You define what estate agency means.” - Jeri

In a time when the number of high street estate agents offices is rising, and when the lure of online and 'do it yourself' property transaction packages is present, one might reasonably ask, why use an estate agent? Or, why use one in particular? Especially for a property sale in a time when - with a few exceptions around the country - properties are selling quickly. 

The answer to these questions is simple. Property transactions are high value in financial terms and in terms of emotional investment and potential stress. You need to get the best for your money in a transaction you may not repeat for years and to experience the minimum of stress with the best results possible. 

We believe that means working with professional, friendly, innovative people who are passionate about delivering a great service is vital. All of these positives are embedded in our values and in what we do from day to day. If they weren't, we wouldn't be getting the testimonials we do, old or new. So, it is great to be called jolly nice, honest, and smart and to define what the best of estate agency means. 

Taking a step back, though, perhaps the best message in these testimonials is that Jeri's brother got his clear CT scan. Thank goodness for that.

You can view our earlier posts in our Index here.

Calling Tulse Hill businesses! Your community needs you

Tulse Hill Forum Chairman Erica with a fine cake and Chris, its baker

Yes, if you're a business in Tulse Hill, your community needs you! If you are a business in Tulse Hill, and we're one, near the railway station, you are part of the community. There's no getting away from it. So why not join us at the gathering the Tulse Hill Forum has organised on Wednesday 7th May at 7.30pm in the Creative Aroma coffee shop to meet local business people?

The Forum wants to listen to what local businesses think is important that can be done in Tulse Hill to make it even better for them and for everyone in the community. The Forum is also interested in finding out what businesses can contribute to what the Forum is doing - time, skills, money, items, even things as simple as use of window space for posters. Some of the things the Forum is doing are really innovative and making a real positive difference, drawing on the talents of local people of all ages.

The Tulse Hill Forum are as bright and engaging a group of people, and as determined to boost the local community, as any you'll find around the country. We really enjoy talking with them and doing what we can to support them and the recently started Tulse Hill Community Market. Hence this blog post.

So, if you're in a local business, please join the Forum and one or more of us from Edward Ashdale Estate Agents on the 7th. Did we mention what a lovely place the Creative Aroma is? Or how superb their home made cakes are? Well, they are. If you've not been there before, some and find out for yourself.

See you there.

John Adamthwaite

You can view our earlier posts in our Index here.