Daniel Evans
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Good Afternoon,
I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to each of you for your candid and thoughtful contributions to this recent discussion on the forum. Your engagement and openness are vital to the growth and improvement of our Association.
It’s clear from your comments and feedback that there are significant areas to focus our efforts on to enhance transparency, accountability, and the overall value we provide to our members. Your voices have highlighted key issues and concerns that we must address as a priority to ensure the AIIC meets the standards you rightly expect. To this end I’ve created and distributed a questionnaire to all members seeking their opinions on how we can improve the value we offer.
I am heartened by the passion and commitment evident in all your communications. It reinforces my belief in our community and the importance of the work we do. Please know that your input is being taken seriously and will be used to inform our actions going forward.
In the coming weeks, I will be outlining specific steps to take based on the feedback you’ve provided. I’m committed to not only resolving these issues but also to strengthening our organisation so that it can continue to serve your needs and the needs of the industry effectively.
Thank you once again for your honesty, your support, and your dedication to the AIIC. Together, I am confident that we can navigate these challenges and emerge stronger.
Warm Regards
Daniel Evans
ChairpersonDear All,
Having read the post provided by Emma please note that in my opinion this is not a transparent representation of the current situation and if anyone wishes to discuss it with me in more detail I’m more than happy to do so, I’ve never refused to communicate with any member it is not in my nature to do so!
You will find attached an open letter which was due for distribution and had already been shared with certain members, this along with a covering document will now be sent to ALL members today to keep everyone suitably informed rather than just those here on the forum who have read her post
My issues had already been shared with Emma on several occasions so to suggest that she was unaware of some of the details of my personal life previously is not true, but it was only prior to the first meeting this August that I shared in more depth the response to which was totally lacking any sympathy or support and was actually tantamount to an attack on my character, further to which I have now been financially penalised whilst being expected to continue in my role until the AGM at the earliest
Over the summer I have worked very hard to deliver the final membership database (as mentioned in Emmma’s post this includes working till nearly midnight on occasion) which is now complete and will be used going forward for a number of elements of the Association administration and engagement projects including .
1. New members processing (including following up lost leads)
2. Membership renewals (including aged account follow ups)
3. Members communication (including training course promotion, newsletters and ad hoc information)
4. External communication and marketing (including agents newsletters and training promotion to past course delegates)
5. Course organisation and documentation distributions
6. AGM Arrangement and award organisation
7. Webinar arrangement and hosting including analytics on engagementThrough 2022 and 2023 on a regular basis my main responsibility was to liaise with Angels Media to produce daily social media posts and regular blog posts / PR articles along with representing the Association on the PRS advisory panel, the relevant social media and PR provided very little return on investment as engagement with those instructing us needs a different approach and my personal suggestion at the time was to recruit an internal marketeer to work alongside me to engage directly with members and external stakeholders but this idea was not approved by the board at the time for various reasons.
The work expected of me includes but is not limited to the following works required before 17th October AGM date we have mutually agreed:
A. Organising and chairing the AGM
B. Complete database testing further to data population
C. Train Central Office administration on database use
D. Chase lapsed members via email communications and telephone
E. September and October newsletters
F. Appoint new board members including advertising and interviews
G. Progress Company Limited by Guarantee as mandated by members including:a. Finalisation of director’s service agreements
b. Correspondence and administration of transfer of members
c. Confirmation statement to Companies HouseWhilst working with Emma on the board there has been no occasion on which I have acted without agreement
Yes there are ways to improve and this is fully acknowledged but getting all the ducks in a row was the first of my priorities and we are close to that point, it seems a shame having developed the tools to do so for that momentum to now be lost due to a disagreement which could have been resolved at a board level but which instead has now escalated to a public spectacle (not for the first time in the Association’s history) which serves no purpose and will inevitably further hinder the progress which was about to be delivered.
Kind ?Regards
Daniel Evans
ChairThe main issue with this choice for most is scalability, but this is dependent on your goals as an inventory clerk
If you want to do freelance work for other companies then the vast majority who use freelance clerks will use some form of software
Whether you choose dictation and typing or voice-to-text is a preference depending on the relevant vocabulary you use and the amount of time you want to spend editing the report whilst at the job or when you get home, voice-to-text is probably cheaper in terms of costs but dictation is quicker in general if you want to put a reasonable amount of detail in your reports.
The main risk with software at this stage is at a market level because whilst most of us are paying companies like Inventorybase or Inventory Hive subscription fees on one hand, on the other they are marketing to our customers to provide them with software and training to do it internally therefore reducing the available market share for independent inventory clerks and companies moving forward. They have higher marketing and advertising budgets than any inventory company or association will ever have so do pose a threat in this respect but it is not something easily resolved in the short term!
Whilst the vast majority of properties should more than likely be covered under a standard pricing structure, where you are pre-warned (this is potentially unlikely with a lot of agents even when they know in advance!) that the tenants have made a real mess of the property and request you take ‘extra time’ to ensure everything is adequately noted we have as a company on a number of occasions quoted a higher fee for noting excessive damage and changes to an inventory, primarily because for these jobs we will ensure we provide the clerk with additional time to get everything recorded properly.
Cannot remember a situation where one of these requests has been denied but they only apply to exceptional situations and properly 1 in 1000 tenancies…
Cleaning on the other hand is dealt with fairly simply and we’ve never charged a higher fee as this can be dealt with via single line statements or summary room comments plus supporting pictures which doesn’t take excessive additional time to demonstrate the condition for allocation of costs to tenants, plus cleaning is invariably the one issue you’ll be reporting more than often
Good Afternoon All
Further to this query the documentation in relation to Code of Practice was changed under the previous chair in 2019 but we are looking into the exact process used to amend the documents and will confirm further to a meeting due on Monday, it doesn’t appear the Code was updated on the website at the time though
We can confirm the documents including amended wording were submitted to all members via the invite process for the AGM in May 2021 2 years after they were initially changed by the previous chair.
It is a difficult subject because there are those on both sides of this equation and we are sensitive to this fact, especially as the exemption has been in place for 4 years now so we have accepted applications from those undertaking cleaning services and there are other companies both members and executive members (including the company owned by the previous chair) which have offered these services for a number of years without it affecting their membership
The current code requires anyone undertaking these services to declare clearly to all concerned parties the potential conflict of interest when providing the combined services but we will review the matter and confirm further on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
Kind Regards
Daniel Evans
ChairpersonDear All
Firstly my sincere apologies for any concerns caused, fully appreciate the concern raised by all however this was an error by the PR company in my absence whilst on leave
Having worked with them for almost 2 years they have been briefed multiple times on our role as an association and should not have advertised these courses directly to agents.
They have been instructed to remove the posts with immediate affect and have been given notice to terminate the ongoing relationship so we can have a more direct control of the content going forward at the end of the current 12 month contract period which expires in December as discussed and agreed at the AGM.
The only place any reference to the posts remains is Twitter which due to the recent company changes care of Mr Elon Musk we are working on removing as soon as possible.
We have never directly advertised to agents to undertake our courses previously as suggested by some in the comments and have no intention of doing so, although we have never had an prohibitive measure to prevent them from attending courses should they pay for the attendance, after all our only review process comes after the training when people apply for membership.
These posts have not generated any direct interest from agents if that is any reassurance to those with concerns.
As an association we have provided training for a long time now but recently this has been less of a revenue stream due to competition from the software providers such as Hive and Inventorybase
Training and ongoing continuous professional development is important not only for those looking to enter the world we work in but also to those with more experience to ensure everyone keeps up to date with the changes that affect us which in the world of the private rental sector seem to have been many and varied over the past years.
Responding directly to Debbie’s comment about software unfortunately the budget for producing a working software was only previously set (before my time on the board) at £5K which having looked at internal development previously for my own business is less than 10% of the required budget for an effective software development project which is why it never came to fruition.
As can be seen from the other post linked in the comments we have consistently promoted the use of INDEPENDENT inventory clerks and advocated accordingly in both blogs and press articles released as that is our main purpose, which we will continue to do going forward.
We are looking at ways to provide greater value to members and there are still a number of companies across the UK who use our membership or ARLA Inventories as a benchmark for contractor selection and compliance.
Kind Regards
Daniel Evans
ChairThe issue here is more to do with the relationships we have with our customers and managing their expectations which is key to our ongoing business development
We recently had a landlord who came back to the agent after 4 months and claimed the clerk had turned the heating up during the check out and failed to reduce it thereby resulting in a large heating bill for the landlord.
There was no way to either remember or prove the statement made by the landlord so we could have taken the view that they were ‘out of time’ to make a reasonable claim or fault lay with them for not instructing somebody to complete a vacant property inspection of some description.
However, we agreed a 50% reduction on this one invoice meaning we probably lost money on the one job but made our agent client very happy because they were able to make a contribution also and keep the landlord happy.
It has to be remembered each landlord pays thousands in fees to the agent per year and in a market with a severe stock shortage agents will do anything to keep their existing clients, so their primary goal will be making sure their landlord client is happy in most instances and experience tells me that for business growth and longevity, whilst immensely painful on some occasions, the client lifetime value is significantly greater than the short term loss on a single issue.
Apologies as think you’ve misunderstood me Matthew as wasn’t suggesting your reports were any less quality than any other clerk or company
There will always be demand for independent sole trader based companies and our association is predominated by this style of business, but at the same time there is now a much greater demand from large organisations who control a significant percentage of the available workloads especially in urban areas for inventory companies who can provide multiple branch service across wider portfolios on a consistent basis across a whole year without gaps in the service delivery for holidays / illness etc.
It’s mainly because of this that the industry has gradually accepted a higher price point which is good for everyone both sole trader and business.
My advice is purely that if you research your local area pricing, then find you are cheaper but providing a better service then compete on value rather than price deflation, then the whole industry wins.
As an example once upon a time there was a company in the south coast region who deflated prices down to £35 for a inventory make and check in on a 2 bedroom property, the price point south of a certain point has to some degree or another taken nearly a decade to recover to a workable level but for a long time it had severe impact on everyone in the region’s ability to work for a reasonable rate.
The industry also needs larger companies who have the resources available to collaborate to combat the dominance of agency based opinion at a certain level as historically we have been unable to do in my opinion.
I’d disagree with almost all the comments here, we regularly charge tenants cancelation fees for appointments which were confirmed in writing (either by us directly or by the agent) and every agent we work with has agreed to this process, and even the one with a policy against paying them will occasionally pay if the tenants have been obstructive to the check out without due cause.
We have a very low refusal rate on these charges which are generally sent out at 50% of a full invoice charge….I’ve charged tenants over £400+ VAT for aborted visits in the past and been paid for it by the agent.
The only real question in this regard as more often than not the charge will be a deduction from a tenant’s deposit is whether an arbitrator would agree to the charge on a dispute resolution process?
In any event with sensible discussion most agents will at least ‘propose’ the charge for you after all time is money
#investigationrequired
The only problem with taking the approach you are Matthew is the overall impact to the industry, by competing mainly on the basis of price it removes the margin required to run a business in the longer term as you add additional layers of costs such as booking, quality control, administration, marketing etc.
The largest step and one of our biggest hurdles to acquiring business is the lack of VAT applied by many sole inventory clerks as the threshold for a single person working on there own is very reasonable, but certainly not high enough for running any type of multiple person business.
We spent many years escaping the trap we had created for ourselves by working solely on price being the main competitive factor. It has been a lot of hard work over the last 5 years to educate clients more on value than price.
Also as part of the consolidation of the industry over the last few years more corporate agents are not interested in price as a decision making factor but larger scale service delivery and will willingly pay the ‘right’ price for those services if delivered in a professional manner. They’ll often be market leaders and will have fixed price list all contractors work to, so you can almost never go wrong by continuously educating in those instances on value to drive price up.
I’ve always believed for the work required to run an inventory business we are not properly valued, and the low margins do not lead to a great investment in quality clerks who will assist in progressing the industry to where it could be if we were properly valued, almost all contractors in the property industry earn significantly more on an hourly rate than an inventory clerk can without a lot of the headaches that go with our position such as seasonality etc
We have a few ‘vertically challenged’ clerks including my business partner who is 5′ 2″ so ceilings of any height do pose a problem but there are some inventive ways to get around the problem
Just dont try asking all your clerks to carry extendable ladders like we once considered, especially for those who work in London and use public transport….it didn’t go down well although I think if working rurally I’d be tempted to carry one in the back of the car or maybe a small step ladder if there was space.
The best practise in my opinion is to educate your clients on the upcoming changes now and offer the replacement service for extra income where you can immediately
This way when it becomes legislation, which it looks highly likely it will, you can then be ahead of the curve
Several agents we work with have had this policy of CO detectors by gas boilers since the original policy as best practise and I’m highly inclined to agree with them
Like the rest of you I’ve never understood the logic of not including boilers in the original legislation and now having to update it, the boiler is the first place any sensible landlord or tenant installs the CO detector!
There is a large trend over the last few years in this direction with landlord’s using their own inventory clerks, even with the best of agents, this is in many instances because landlords are becoming more educated to where their own preference of reporting style and how much value they place on an inventory clerk and let only landlords have now had time to form their own supplier relations with inventory clerks.
Agents have a price list they work to on a daily basis and this is quite frequently not to the taste of their landlords.
To attract landlord customers directly work with your agents to find out what they do with their let only clients and if there is anything you can do in terms of point of sale material to assist them in referring you.
Then past that you need to employ all the tools that are available for B2C (Business to customer) rather than B2B (Business to business) which we all use for attracting agents. You will find funnily that a lot of the tools of B2C like social media and marketing will also have a dual benefit of bringing value to your B2B efforts as well.