http://www.negotiator-magazine.co.uk/article/symbol-significance-1700

A kitemark scheme is on the verge of being launched to show consumers that a lettings agent has client money protection. It’s got some agency heavyweights behind it, but will it receive wider industry support? Clare Bettelley investigates.

The launch of a kitemark designed to indicate to consumers that their rents and deposits are protected has stimulated a huge debate from all areas of the agency market.

Firstly, there’s the camp behind it, which includes its creators, Foxtons, Winkworth, Belvoir Lettings, Northwood, Spicerhaart, Touchstone, Bushells, Young London and Linley & Simpson. Property ombudsman Christopher Hamer, Marsh & Parsons chief executive Peter Rollings and Knight Frank lettings director Tim Hyatt have also pledged their support.

Then there’s the camp, led by Hyatt, which questions the need for yet another logo, and why the Association of Residential Lettings Agents’ own doesn’t serve the same purpose in providing consumers with the reassurance they need about the safety of their deposits and rent.

Cynics

Over in the cynic camp, conspiracy theories simmer about the ‘real’ reasons behind the kitemark launch, the gravitas of NALS, and even the raison d’etre of the body that was launched by the government in 1999 as an accreditation scheme for lettings and property management agents, to help professionalise the private-rented sector.

ARLA chief operating officer Ian Potter says he is in the throes of digesting the announcement, which he claims was a complete surprise when unveiled earlier this month. Nevertheless, he already has his doubts. “The [CMP] schemes are all different in terms of what they pay out, so how does the consumer know the value?” He adds: “The kitemark gives a mixed message at the moment. I don’t see what it achieves. If the CLG was happy to endorse it, it would be different, but it won’t. It said it would support it, not endorse it.”

Martin & Co managing director, Ian Wilson, also has concerns: “It’s a load of twaddle. It just seems to be some people trying to sell more products in their own areas, and about them wanting to gain more credibility to do this.

“The fundamental problem we’ve got is that we don’t think NALS is a credible body. It is a self-appointing organisation, and we still have grave concerns about it and about the idea of regulation, which is a bit 1990s.”

Wilson believes that agents’ credibility is increasingly being determined by online consumer reviews, which should include whether or not an agent has CMP.

Eligibility

The new kitemark scheme is eligible for agents registered with a recognised CMP scheme, the importance of which is being pontificated by the kitemark’s steering committee and fellow scheme supporters. This is ironic given that the majority of agents don’t know what they’re paying for and, as one agent eloquently puts it, ‘don’t really care’. Of course, they will care if their scheme won’t, for whatever reason, pay out.

None of the schemes was prepared to share their average claim payout, or their average case turnaround time. Nevertheless, as part of our own ongoing efforts to raise industry standards, The Negotiator brings you not a logo, but a table listing the property industry’s four primary schemes, which are being offered by ARLA, NALS, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Law Society.

Challenges

So, will NALS and the committee succeed in raising industry standards where other bodies, such as the Property Standards Board, which collapsed last September, have failed?

The two bodies likely to fight out the battle for quality champion, ARLA and NALS, are positioned quite differently, one as a trade organisation, the other as an accreditation body, yet both face the same challenge: consumer recognition. This stems from member support, so both bodies now need to work hard to identify solutions to the issue.

Potter claims to be planning an investigation into ARLA member loyalty and the value of the the body’s logo in the coming months. NALS’ strategy is yet to be revealed.

In the meantime, Hyatt believes ARLA members can play their part in helping build consumers awareness, as he claims Knight Frank already does. “With every instruction we ensure, through our management training, that we communicate that we are registered members of ARLA, and we contribute to a client money protection scheme, and we do so because it’s a positive.”

His call follows that of the outgoing ARLA president Sue Hughes-Thomas, who at ARLA’s recent annual conference appealed to members to work harder to build strong relationships with customers while revealing that 34% of professionals are still unaware that ARLA exists.

She also called on members to take responsibility for educating their customers about the role of ARLA, using their membership as a badge of honour, displaying it on all marketing materials at all opportunities.

It’s doubtful whether Rightmove could have reported a £56.6m profit without member support in the form of window stickers, so the question now is whether NALS and ARLA can do anything vaguely similar, be it with more impactful window stickers or portal listings of their respective logos.