Hodgson Elkington - General Other - National Approved Letting Scheme

Date: 03 Jan 2002

Hodgson Elkington, the Lincoln and Newark based property management agent and chartered surveyors, has joined NALS - the National Approved Letting Scheme, set up to provide a much needed benchmark accreditation scheme to enable landlords and tenants to avoid the pitfalls of dealing with 'cowboy' letting agents.

The scheme, supported by some of the most powerful names in the property industry, ensures that agents comply with defined service and have in place a customer complaints scheme, Professional Indemnity Insurance and Client Protection cover. Astonishingly, around £1 billion of UK tenants' deposits is currently unprotected.

"NALS service standards are the consumer's benchmark against which to judge the performance of letting and management agents operating in the private rented sector, and we are delighted to welcome Hodgson Elkington to the Scheme," said NALS chairman, Hugh Dunsmore-Hardy.

"They are in the vanguard of a drive to establish uniform service standards in the industry. Those agents who are not prepared to meet the standards required by NALS and, most importantly, the public, will not survive long," he added.

"We have always been enthusiastic advocates of rigorous regulation within the property industry and were founder members of ARLA, the Association of Residential Letting agents. The visible assurance provided by the NALS logo gives prospective landlords and tenants the confidence of knowing the service they can expect from dealing with us," said Hodgson Elkington partner, Sam Elkington.

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