Renters’ Rights Act piles work on letting agents

Landlords using letting agents may face slower communication and decisions as the Renters’ Rights Act adds to their administrative workloads.

Research from Propoly found that 73% of letting agents have seen their workload rise since the legislation came into force on 1 May.

One in four respondents said the increase had been significant.

Compliance and record keeping caused the largest share of extra work at 18%, followed by rent reviews at 16% and possessions and tenancy endings at 14%.

Agents face heavier workloads

Sim Sekhon, the firm’s group chief executive, said: “More than 100 days on from the introduction of the Renters’ Rights Act, it is clear that the impact is being felt not only in terms of the additional work required, but also in the way lettings businesses need to organise their people, processes and technology.

“The challenge for the sector is not simply dealing with more administration.”

He added: “It is making sure that information can move efficiently between the teams and systems involved in managing a tenancy, without creating unnecessary duplication or additional manual work.

“As the new requirements become embedded into day-to-day operations, businesses will be looking for ways to manage compliance and service delivery efficiently while maintaining profitability.”

Technology systems disconnected

Only 17% of respondents said their business uses one main technology system to manage the additional administration.

Another 17% still rely heavily on emails, spreadsheets and other disconnected processes, while 66% use several systems that are not linked.

Some 61% said staff manually transfer, re-enter or duplicate information between systems during a single tenancy, with 16% doing so frequently.

Better integration would help landlord communication and decision making, cited by 17%, while tenant referencing, compliance and tenant communications each received 16%.

Compliance concerns grow

Half of those surveyed said letting and property management teams now have to work much more closely because of the new rules.

More than half(52%), said better integration between systems would improve operational efficiency, against 5% who expected a negative effect.

Keeping up with compliance requirements was the leading future challenge for 28% of respondents.

Maintaining profitability while handling the extra work concerned 21%, while 16% pointed to managing the increased administrative burden.