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Monthly Archives: April 2019

RICS Professional Statement on Service Charges in Commercial Property

Commercial property agents who are members of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) or who are regulated by RICS (RICS’ Agents) will need to comply with the RICS Professional Statement ‘Service charges in commercial property (1st edition)’ (‘the Statement’) which came into force on 01 April 2019.

The Statement replaces the RICS Service Charge Codes which were previously only guidance around best practice for the operation of service charge in commercial properties occupied by more than one tenant. The Statement imposes mandatory requirements on RICS’ Agents which are supported by core principles.

RICS’ Agents who fail to comply with the mandatory requirements could face legal and/or disciplinary action, such as negligence claims, if they commit a repudiatory breach of these requirements. A RICS’ Agent can only depart from these requirements for justifiable reasons.

In short, the Statement aims to make service charge costs transparent, hold agents to account, and ensure that service charge budgets and end of year demands are issued in a timely manner.

Nine Mandatory Requirements

(1) All expenditure to be recovered from tenants must be in accordance with the lease;
(2) Owners and managers must not seek to recover more than 100% of the proper and actual costs of the services;
(3) Each year owners and managers must be provided with service charge budgets, including appropriate explanatory commentary;
(4) Service charge monies (including reserve and sinking funds) must be held in one or more discrete (or virtual) bank accounts;
(5) Interest earned on these bank accounts must be credited to the service charge account (after any necessary deductions have been made);
(6) Owners and managers must ensure that an approved set of service charge accounts (which have been certified by an appropriately qualified person) are provided annually to tenants;
(7) Owners and managers must ensure that a service charge apportionment schedule is provided annually to tenants;
(8) In respect of disputes when acting for a tenant, the manager must advise the tenant that if money is being withheld, it is only the amount in dispute which is being withheld; and
(9) In respect of an accounting error when acting on behalf of the landlord, managers must inform the landlord that the service charge has been raised incorrectly and will be adjusted without any undue delay.

The Statement vs the Lease

The Statement does not override the service charge provisions of an existing lease, however; the Statement is to be read in conjunction with the terms of an existing lease. The purpose of the Statement is to help to identify the best approach in interpreting a lease and is likely to assist in resolving disputes that may arise in relation to service charge management.

If a landlord will be engaging a commercial property agent to manage the service charge and they are a RICS’ Agent, then the lease should be compliant with the Statement and service charge provisions in new leases or renewal leases should be drafted by reference to the Statement.

The Statement may cause increased administration for landlord and RICS’ Agents who may need to make changes to their current accounting procedures. However, these changes are likely to be well received by tenants who are likely to benefit from increased transparency and communication as a result of these changes.

Are you a commercial landlord/property agent and do you welcome these changes? Your comments are, as ever, welcome!

Mandatory CMP Schemes for Letting Agents and Property Managers

The Client Money Protection Schemes for Property Agents (Requirement to Belong to a Scheme etc.) Regulations came into force on 01 April 2019.  Under these regulations, all private sector letting agents and property managers in England who hold client money are required to be members of a government approved Client Money Protection Scheme (CMP Scheme) from the 01 April 2019 or face fines of up to £30,000.

Client money does not include tenancy deposits, which are protected under an approved tenancy deposit scheme.

These regulations give landlords and tenants the confidence that their money is safe, and that they will be compensated in the event of the monies being misappropriated or if the agent becomes insolvent. This is one of several legislative changes being introduced to protect customers against rogue letting agents and to regularise this industry.

These regulations only affect agents operating in England. Letting agents and property managers in Wales are already required to be a member of a CMP Scheme before they can obtain a license to operate in Wales.

Agents who belong to a professional body such as ARLA will already be members of a CMP Scheme.

In order to comply with the regulations, agents must:

(1) Be a member of an approved or designated CMP Scheme;
(2) If they’ve been provided with a certificate from the scheme administrator:
(a) Obtain a certificate confirming membership of the CMP Scheme;
(b) Display the certificate at the agent’s premises and on their website; and
(c) Produce a copy of the certificate to any person who may reasonably require it, free of charge;
(3) Notify all clients within 14 days if their CMP membership is revoked, or they change to a different approved CMP scheme; and
(4) Notify all clients of the name and address of the CMP scheme.

Financial Penalties for Non-Compliance and Right to Appeal

Every local authority in England is under a duty to enforce these requirements.

In respect of a breach of point 1 above, an agent can be fined up to £30,000.

In respect of a breach of points 2-4 above, an agent can be fined up to £5,000.

An agent can appeal against a decision to impose a penalty and the amount of the penalty.

Only one financial penalty may be imposed on the same property agent in respect of the same breach unless:

(1) the breach continues after the end of 28 days after the final notice is served and the agent hasn’t appealed the final notice within that period; or
(2) the breach continues 28 days after an appeal is finally determined (excluding the day on which the appeal is decided).

At the time of writing there are five government approved CMP Schemes:

(1) UK Association of Letting Agents (UKALA);
(2) Money Shield;
(3) Client Money Protect;
(4) Propertymark; and
(5) National Approved Lettings Scheme (NALS).

Agents will be required to pay an annual membership fee to join a CMP Scheme. The amount of the membership fee will vary depending on the sum of money that the agent holds from time to time.

Requirements vary from scheme to scheme, but the current approved schemes all require agents to:

(1) show that they have a designated client account in which to place client monies which is separate from their business account;
(2) Professional Indemnity Insurance; and
(3) Bank statements for the designated client account.

Are you already a member of a CMP Scheme? Have you had any problems joining a CMP Scheme?  As a letting agent/property manager operating in England, do you welcome these changes? Your comments are, as ever, welcome!

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