Assist

Hi Bruce,

I’ve tried numerous different methods at numerous different times to get agents to sign supplier agreements for the exact reasons you mention, but with little success – I’ve got literally 2 i think over the years and one of them has since sold his company but for reasons too long to explain here the contract couldn’t be carried over… that’s my experience of it anyway, would love to hear if anyone has been successful at this but the thing is that agents just don’t want to be tied in, because they know they don’t have to be.

In terms of selling the company, this is still possible, i have bought another inventory company before and very successfully merged it into my inventory business.

Stef, I did read this the other day too and its a great point. This is where the uncertainty comes from in my opinion – the above article is correct, my overview of all of the above is that the landlord has to pay for it, therefore rents will rise, in theory. But, not all landlords will want to pay for it in the hope that they can increase rents slightly in the following months to recoup costs so some just wont bother, others will look for the cheapest possible option; leaving just the savvy ones using ‘proper’ inventory companies. I think because of this we may see a drop in business but over time this will just reflect the importance of a proper inventory report even more.

I have spoken to my agents and they have mixed views, similar to that of RKirwan above but the majority are just saying that the costs will be absorbed by the rents going up. In London its typical for the tenant to pay the in and the landlord to pay the out but sometimes the other way around.
From what i know it seems that the deposit schemes don’
t have a major preference for a third party inventory…but it’ll still need to be good otherwise they will just throw it out of a dispute.
I’m sure that many landlords and agents will see that the inventory is an integral part of the letting process but the fear is that they try to do it themselves or use a really cheap company, I have seen a few crop up recently but the reports are shockingly bad so my argument is whats the point in having an inventory done if it doesn’t protect the all parties involved!

Hello Joan,

Thanks very much for your reply.
OK I will contact my insurance company again – if they don’t cooperate I will find another insurance company.

I will definitely only be working with AIIC member clerks, I believe it was you who added a member for me previously and the clerk I am taking on next has trained with the AIIC so I am going to add them onto my membership if they are not already a member (meeting this afternoon).