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Self-Employed Inventoryclerk Required for Bournemouth Area 25/08/2009 Part-time/full-time self-employed person
sought to work as an Inventory Clerk.
Training provided. Immediate start.
ESSENTIAL FOR THIS POSITION:
- Excellent spoken and written English
- Reliability and punctuality
- Own transport (cover Bournemouth area)
- Good PC skills (esp. M/S Word)
- PC/laptop with internet access
- Ability to climb stairs (flats, houses etc)
Send CV & covering letter (inc. contact number)
to zoe@inventoryclerk.com for further info.
Tenants ruin flat – and then win damages against landlord 19/08/2009 Tenants who trashed an apartment and then abandoned it owing three months of rent, have won their case against their landlord, even though the court accepted their actions were wrong.
The damage was so extensive that £1,500 of repairs had to be carried out before the flat could be let again.
The landlord, who has asked not to be named, took the tenants to court and won £4,413 – £4,100 to cover lost rent and damages, and £313 in extra compensation.
But the tenants counter-sued on the grounds that the landlord had not correctly lodged their tenancy deposit with an approved scheme.
The landlord’s relief at winning the money was short-lived when the judge told her that she owned them even more, and ordered her to pay the tenants a balance of £94.82.
The Residential Landlords Association is now to take the case to appeal on the landlord’s behalf.
After the hearing, the landlord said: “I was gutted. It just proved that honesty and fair treatment do not count for anything these days.
“I trod carefully when the rent arrears began last spring because it’s so easy for payment requests to be branded as harassment. But, after a series of letters and phone calls, I received no response so began repossession proceedings.
“Eventually, the keys turned up in the post, two months after the end of the tenancy, and it became clear the flat had been abandoned.
“If they had left it in reasonable condition, I would still have accepted the loss of rent, but walls were broken, things were burned and stained, there was rotting food, general human filth and even class A drugs left behind.”
She added that when she realised she had not lodged the deposit, she did so retrospectively. Her belief was that the law allows this: “But the judge did not understand this and so awarded them more money than they had to pay me … I ended up owing them £93.64.
“It never occurred to me that I would be the loser. I have been in this business for 25 years, am a member of the country’s leading association for professional landlords and belong to a recognised tenancy deposit scheme.
“I am a responsible person and had done everything expected of me. The tenants had no complaint, until I began asking them for money that they had a contractual obligation to pay.
“The whole court ruling was shambolic and I’m now left with serious disappointment in the legal profession.
“It also sets a dangerous precedent that could be used against other landlords in future.”
Richard Jones, the RLA’s lawyer, said: “This landlord did everything she was required to do, yet the judge’s misreading of the Housing Act’s tenancy deposit protection measures, as well as the spirit of the Act, blatantly showed how such hearings things rarely go in favour of private sector landlords.”
“This landlord did nothing wrong and, at every point, tried to put things right. However, the law seems to reward dishonesty.”
ARLA steps up call for compulsory qualifications 12/08/2009 ARLA has criticised the Government for not throwing its weight behind compulsory professional qualifications for lettings agents
Ian Potter, operations manager of ARLA, said: “The current depressed sales market has highlighted the ease of entry into the lettings sector.
“Sales agents have been turning to lettings as an alternative form of income despite having no relevant qualifications or experience in what is a highly specialist area.
“There are real dangers that landlords and tenants could fall foul of rogue operators and this is unacceptable in terms of consumer protection.
“We estimate that around half of letting agents still do not belong to a professional body. This poses a risk to new landlords as well as tenants.”
He called for mandatory regulation of residential sales, lettings, and management agents, saying these “should be brought together to provide a firm professional basis for this sector”.
ARLA was responding to Government proposals in the wake of the Rugg Report, which called for the mandatory licensing of all letting and managing agents, together with compulsory registration of landlords.
In its consultation �" just ended �" the Government made it plain that it backed a registration scheme for landlords, plus full licensing of all letting and managing agents with a scheme to be run by an independent body.
The Government paper did say that there would have to be entry requirements, but did not spell out what these could be.
Potter said: “ARLA’s main concern is with the Government’s lack of assertion surrounding professional qualifications for agents. It runs contrary to the flavour of the original report to fall down on this particular point.
"It is a widely held industry view that qualifications are key to the professionalisation of the sector and a necessary step in restoring faith of the consumers."
New areas starting for Inventoryclerk.com 10/06/2009 We are pleased to announce the continued growth of the inventoryclerk.com network with Inventoryclerkcardiff opening Inventoryclerknewport.
This means that clients from Bath, Somerset, Bristol through to west of Cardiff can benefit from the now well-known, unique and high quality service.
Inventoryclerkpoole, inventoryclerkrichmond and inventoryclerkcrawley will also soon be online with the same service.
Inventory Clerks And The Tenant Deposit Scheme 03/06/2009 The 6th of April 2007 is behind us and the Tenant Deposit Scheme now open for business to landlords and tenants. What are the implications of the scheme however? There are no doubt many implications, but one term often mentioned and yet little discussed it seems, is that of the "evidence-based scheme". Letting Agents and Landlords now have to grapple with the TDS and all its ramifications more ...
Regulation for Inventory Clerks 29/05/2009 Being an inventory clerk has always been seen to many as a less than professional service. This is no surprise, it seems since the start of time, the role or job of an inventory clerk has been perceived as something your ‘aunt Jane’ would do for ‘pin money’ more ...
Inventoryclerk Hertford & Inventoryclerk Central London now LIVE 21/05/2009 We are pleased to announce the opening of Inventoryclerk Hertford and Inventoryclerk Central London today!
Joanna from Hertford is covering Potters Bar, Northaw, Cuffley, Goffs Oak, Hammond Street, Broxbourne, Wormley, Hoddesdon, Brookmans Park, Welham Green, Essendon, Hatfield, Welwyn, Welwyn Garden City, Hertford, Ware, Wadesmill, Puckeridge, Braughing, Walkern, Aston, and Bennington.
Giles is Central London and is covering Belgravia, Chelsea, knightsbridge, Westminster, Pimlico, Kensington, South Kensington, Earls Court, Holland Park, Fulham, West Kensington, Olympia, Hammersmith, Shepherd's Bush, Chiswick, and Turnham Green.
Inventory Clerk comes to Cambridge, St Ives, St Neots, Huntingdon and Newmarket 19/05/2009 InventoryClerk are delighted that the network is being represented in the Cambridge area by Scot Philp at Inventory Clerk Cambridge covering:
Cambridge, St Ives, St Neots, Huntingdon, Newmarket and surrounding areas
Postcodes: CB1, CB2, CB3, CB4, CB5, CB8, CB21, CB22, CB23, CB24, CB25, PE19, PE27 & PE29.
Inventory Clerk Cardiff opens for business 19/05/2009 Inventory Clerk Cardiff opens their new office in Cardiff City, and as you see from the pictures, this is a major leap forward for the inventoryclerk.com network.
Covering Cardiff, Newport and anywhere within close proximity of these two locations means that landlords and agents now have a professional service not yet experienced before in South Wales.
Inventory clerks from inventoryclerk.com soon to join APIP (The Association of Professional Inventory Providers) 16/05/2009 APIP is soon to qualify inventory clerks within the inventoryclerk.com organisation.
This move will help increase awareness and the need for better quality inspections and reports.
With Landlord and Letting Agent licensing inevitable, the need for highly trained and skilled inventory clerks becomes more important than before.
Estate Agent Today 15/05/2009 Jonathan Senior from InventoryClerk.com head office, now produces a regular column for the well-known on-line industry magazine, Estate Agent Today.
To stay current with his thoughts as well as recent developments which affect the Inventory Clerk Industry, go to the 'Inventories' link in the left-hand column of the site.
NAME CHANGE MARKS BOOST TO CONSUMER PROTECTION IN PROPERTY SECTOR 06/05/2009 The broader scope of the Ombudsman for Estate Agents scheme sees it changing to The Property Ombudsman Service (TPOS) on May 1.
The OEA was founded as the Ombudsman for Corporate Estate Agents and is now in its 20th year but has come a long way since its launch in 1990.
There will be a new logo for window displays, in blue with the OFT Approved Codes symbol alongside for sales offices and green without the OFT logo for lettings. Commercial property sales members will have a black logo when the scheme expands soon to cover some of their activities
“Membership has increased dramatically in the past few years and at the same time OEA has also expanded to take in lettings as well as its original remit to cover agents selling residential property,” explains Bill McClintock, chief operating officer for TPOS. "In the near future, we will also be embracing some commercial property activities as well as the UK end of foreign residential property transactions."
"As the principal means of redress for consumers in the property sector, reflected by 95 per cent of UK estate agency offices being covered by our scheme, and our widening fields of activity which will also extend to including HIPs and property search providers, we consider the old name no longer reflected all that we do."
"We have submitted our lettings Code of Practice to the OFT for endorsement under its Consumer Codes Approval Scheme, which we see as vital in current market conditions where lettings are dominating activity."
"As the principal means of redress for consumers in the property sector we will continue to drive up industry standards and the OFT approved Codes help achieve this."
"There is already great awareness of the OEA symbol and we want that to apply to the new identity as well so the old and new are closely related."
"Consumers have come to recognise the value of the OEA being available to them and we want them to be aware of and understand this change."
Lord Best, newly-appointed chairman of the governing Council of the OEA in succession to former director general of fair trading Lord Borrie, assured consumers that none of the Ombudsman's procedures will change and the public can expect the same high standards of service.
"Consumers should remember that the Property Ombudsman Service will continue to be offered to them free of charge and that estate agents undertake to adhere to the Ombudsman's findings," added Lord Best.
In his latest annual report, the Ombudsman, Christopher Hamer, revealed that he found wholly or partially in favour of consumers in 66 per cent of the cases he investigated and made awards totalling more than £380,000 to compensate them. He also disclosed that he had made the scheme's highest ever award of £23,880.
Warm Welcome 29/04/2009 The newly appointed Outreach Manager to the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, Helen McCarthy, has been warmly welcomed by member firms
"The positive response to my arrival has taken us all by surprise," said Helen. "Now we want to gather in as much feedback as possible. Then we can work out the most effective ways to help the membership. Devising systems for doing this will be a priority because between them our members have well over 5,000 branches and we cannot get to each and every office."
From the initial feedback, the TDS will be able to develop new ways to provide interaction between the Scheme and its members. In addition to the regional meetings of the professional bodies, other methods could include workshops, seminars, on-line help and DVDs.
"Please remember that we have recently set up the training course, Disputes and Damages the TDS Way. This is run as part of the programme, ARLA Letting and Property Management Service and is already are proving very popular," Helen added
Tenancy Deposit Scheme nears £1bn 17/04/2009 April 6th is the second anniversary of mandatory tenancy deposit protection and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme reports that it is protecting over £800 million pounds in tenants' deposits, an increase of a quarter of a billion pounds in less than 12 months.
These deposits protect against damage and dilapidations in over 800,000 tenancies housing 1.25 million tenants. The average deposit is just short of £1,000. The figures show that the Tenancy Deposit Scheme safeguards close on half of all Assured Shorthold Tenancies current in the private rented sector.
The tenancies are in properties owned by some 600,000 landlords and arranged through 5,000 letting agents' offices, as well as by corporate landlords who are members of the scheme. Inevitably, the number of deposit disputes going to Alternative Dispute Resolution has also risen, with some 6,000 disputes handled in 2008/09.
Lawrence Greenberg, Chief Executive of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme says, "Together, all three deposit protection schemes authorised by government have put the message across to the public about the merits of deposit protection. For us, too, there has been a learning curve and we have endeavoured to make everything user-friendly for our members and easy for the public to understand."
Tenants winning the battle for return of deposits 06/04/2009 Tenants are finding it easier to get their deposits back from landlords two years after the introduction of the deposit protection scheme. Before then, tenants who had their deposits withheld by their landlords had the option of going to small claims court to recover the cash or losing out altogether. However, from April 2007, all landlords had to be a member of one of three deposit protection schemes which adjudicated when tenants and landlords could not agree on the withholding of deposits.
Figures from Mydeposits. co.uk show that when disputes go to adjudication, 91 per cent are settled in the tenant's favour. However, Citizens Advice says that it still comes across instances where landlords have not fulfilled their legal duty to sign up to a deposit protection scheme. "We are still seeing a lot of cases where deposits have not been protected and tenants have lost money because their landlord or letting agent has not complied with the legislation. That's why it's really important that people check at the outset of a new tenancy exactly how their deposit will be protected," says Liz Phelps, a housing policy officer for Citizens Advice.
Landlords have to tell their tenants which scheme they have signed up to within 14 days of the rental agreement being signed.
Huge expansion for tenancy deposit scheme 01/04/2009 At the approach of the second anniversary of mandatory tenancy deposit protection next week (on April 6), one of the schemes has reported that it is responsible for over £800m worth of tenants' deposits while a second has revealed that nine out of ten tenants get their money back in disputes over deposits.
The Tenancy Deposit Scheme, one of the three schemes sanctioned by the Government, says this is an increase of a quarter of a billion pounds in less than 12 months.
The current money held represents over 800,000 tenancies housing 1.25 million tenants in properties owned by 600,000 landlords, arranged through 5,000 lettings agents and some landlords.
The TDS also claims market share, saying that it now safeguards nearly half of all Assured Shorthold Tenancies current in the private rented sector.
The TDS has also revealed that the number of deposit disputes going to Alternative Dispute Resolution has also risen, with some 6,000 disputes handled in 2008/09.
Lawrence Greenberg, chief executive of the TDS, said: "Together, all three deposit protection schemes authorised by the Government have put the message across to the public about the merits of deposit protection. For us, too, there has been a learning curve and we have endeavoured to make everything user-friendly for our members and easy for the public to understand."
The TDS, which was initiated as a voluntary scheme by ARLA, begins the third year of mandatory protection with new appointments.
Debra Rymer has joined as chief operating officer while Helen McCarthy, as new outreach manager, will be liaising with lettings agents. Additional members of staff are also to be appointed during the next few months as part of the expansion.
A second disputes scheme, My Deposits, has revealed that 91% of tenants win disputes referred to its independent arbitration service. On average, £733 was disputed, less than the average rent of just over £1,000. In only 9% of cases did the ruling go in favour of landlords or their lettings agents. However, out of 335,000 deposits protected, only 0.35% had to be independently adjudicated.
IVC network growing fast 17/03/2009 The national network of highly trained and professional clerks inventoryclerk.com have completed the sale of various new territories during February and early March 2009.
Former Lettings Manager and Estate Agency recruiter Kevin Baker will operate as inventoryclerkenfeild.com offering exclusively the proven clerk system in a busy section North London. Kevin is covering the Borough of Enfield, Barnet, Southgate and Whetstone
IVC's first Husband and Wife team Sharon and Jason Mead-Blandford have taken three areas extending from Haringey in the North of London to Islington close to the centre of London and trade as inventoryclerkislington.com, inventoryclerkharingey.com and inventoryclerkfinchley.com.
They plan to quickly build a strong team covering this lucrative market. Sharon is better known as the Managing Director of Estate Agency Staff.
Former NW London Estate Agent, Paul Becker who is currently in training will operate inventoryclerkhendon.com covering Golders Green, Colindale, Cricklewood, Burnt Oak, Edgware, Mill Hill, Stanmore, Elstree, Borehamwood, Radlett and Shenley.
Moving West, property developer and investor Simon will operate out of Gloucester as inventoryclerkgloucester.com and covering the South of Manchester will be Surveyor Paul Lillie trading as inventoryclerkmanchestersouth.com.
And finally, last but definitely not least, Halifax and surrounding areas are shortly to be covered by Chris Long as inventoryclerkhalifax.com.
Ian Dobrin of Inventoryclerk.com's network growth and marketing team commented "We are delighted to have such seasoned professionals join the team and it is great news for our clients across the UK"
Ian added "We are also negotiating other licenses across the UK right now including Central London, Birmingham, Central Manchester, Cambridge, Greenwich, Chelsea and Fulham, Kingston, Surbiton, Poole, Hertford and others are being discussed all the time"
IVC exhibit at Cardiff Landlord Open Day 16/03/2009 Lynette Eedy, Partner of inventoryclerkcardiff.com along with IVC's Jonathan Senior had a stand at the 2009 Landlord Open Day in Cardiff on 16th March.
The show was sponsored by the National Landlord Association who are the leading membership association for private residential landlords.
A number of sessions were held during the event giving information on current housing topics. Sessions including the Landlord Accreditation Scheme, Fire Safety in rented accommodation; the impact of Energy Performance Certificates in Wales and Local Housing Allowance explained.
Lynette said "We like to show our support for these important events and we have to say the day proved to be a great success for all who attended"
IVC exhibit at ARLA National Conference 17/02/2009 InventoryClerk.Com took a stand for the second year running at the 2009 ARLA conference, on Tuesday 3 February at the Novotel in Hammersmith.
The show was a great success and we met with many old friends and made lots of new contacts throughout the industry nationally.
It was a great opportunity to show ARLA members how they can supply an unrivalled and high-quality inventory service to their landlords.
Dobrin joins inventory clerk 17/01/2009 Ian Dobrin, Managing Director of Estate Agency Personnel and Overseas Property Jobs has joined the head office team of inventoryclerk.com to head up the planned expansion of the companies clerk network across the UK.
Ian's significant other Lynda bought a licence from inventoryclerk.com in October 2008 after extensively researching the options and when Ian met Jonathan Senior at a clerk training and motivational event in December he saw for himself the huge potential for growth of a sound business model.
The network growth team headed by Ian will operate from Ian's London Docklands offices and Ian is joined by Business Development Manager, Ben Shapland.
Ian commented "I liked the Company and Jonathan immediately and this role fits perfectly with my other property related business interests".
" We already have a great bunch of people working with us at inventoryclerk.com and it is so exciting waiting to meet the next generation of inventoryclerk.com clerks".
Ian concluded "I have been involved in property and property recruitment since 1979 and have established contacts throughout the profession so I am genuinely excited about introducing the inventoryclerk.com brand and unique product to a wider professional audience".
Ian, will also in time, get involved in assisting Jonathan in growing the company's corporate client base and establishing partnerships and associations with other trade suppliers.
Anyone who is interested in exploring the possibility of joining the fastest growing network of clerks in the UK, should contact Ian and his team on 020 7540 5353
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