Major Changes To Legislation Prompt Hasty Re-Training For Letting Agents In Scotland

Mandatory Letting Agent Training

From early 2018, all letting agents must register with the Scottish Government and the most senior employee of the agency (or in each office, if there are multiple branches of a letting agent) must have undergone 20 hours training on the legalities and practicalities of property management. It was originally proposed training had to be undertaken within three years of applying for registration. However, that was changed in later proposals to require agents to hold a qualification when they first register in 2018.

It is proposed that the qualification be at Scottish Credit Qualification Framework (SCQF) level 6 or above and cover the following topics:

• legal obligations relating to letting agency work and the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords;
• handling of tenants’ and landlords’ money;
• arranging and managing a tenancy;
• managing repairs and maintenance;
• customer communications, complaints handling and equality issues.

The training requirement must be met by the most senior person in a letting agency business (unless they have no input into the letting agency’s day-to-day running) and all those directly concerned with managing and supervising the letting agency work. For businesses with multiple offices, the training requirement must be met by at least one person in each office.

What’s the overall message?

The Code essentially now gives all letting agents and landlords a benchmark to work within and will ensure tenants and landlords are provided with the same level of service throughout the industry.

Cairn have been proactive and are now are working towards having enough qualified staff members to allow us to be one of the first agents to register. We are currently implementing the required procedures and in-house training which will ensure all our staff from Management to Property Managers are prepared and for the changes.

We can only see these changes to be a positive for the industry as a whole and as a company will embrace the new regime.