With no official regulatory body for managing agents in place, pretty much anyone can set up as an estate manager. So how can you tell if the agent you’re considering employing is any good? One way is to check whether they’re an ARMA member, as David Hewett, the organisation’s Executive Secretary, explains.
ARMA plays an important role in vetting, monitoring and ‘regulating’ its members. Entry criteria are strict, and focus mainly on assessing competency and financial probity. These procedures are also ongoing; each year members must file a renewal form that includes a certificate of adequate Professional Indemnity Insurance and an Accountant’s Report on members’ client accounts.
Where leaseholder complaints arise, members are required to have a structured and robust in-house procedure to deal with them. Should the complainant still not be satisfied, they can ask for ARMA to intervene and, where appropriate, can use the organisation’s independent Adjudication Scheme. As the benchmark for this, all members endorse, accept and have promised to comply with the current Code of Practice relating to service charges published by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and as approved by the Secretaries of State for England and Wales under the terms of Section 87 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993.
Beyond its role as a self-regulator, ARMA additionally works to protect leaseholders from unfair, improper or onerous legislation and regulations tha often increase the cost of service charges. It is also a unique source of technical and up-to-date information for its members – see our entry in the Little Red Book’s Geographical Listings section under the “Nationwide” section for more information on this.
Taken together, this means ARMA members are likely to be better equipped to provide a higher standard of management service and advice than non-members, and inquiring as to whether your prospective agent is a member is well worth doing.
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