Lord Best
Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
9 November 2018
Dear Lord Best
Re: Regulation of Property Agents – Working Group
We are the national body that represents the interests of leaseholders in England and Wales which we do through around 500 separate organisations.
It is our members that pay the managing agents and our members who suffer when there is poor service and indeed the misappropriation of funds.
We have been heavily involved in numerous attempts to deal with these issues over many years including working with the Law Commission Advisory Group, The Commonhold Working Party, The All Party Group and others, which have included the various trade and professional bodies such as ARHM, RICS and ARMA.
We are also in regular contact with the Leasehold Advisory Service.
We are therefore keen to participate in your working group and it is vitally important that the working group includes the actual leaseholders that pay the bills and who any legislation will be intended to protect. This will avoid the accusation that this is the industry directing the direction of travel rather than those affected.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards
Bob Smytherman
Honorary Chairman for FPRA