Professional Risk Associated with Property Professionals
Mint Insurance Brokers Ltd operate in the London and Lloyd’s market specialising in servicing the insurance needs of property professionals. The following paper provides an insight to the professional risks associated with UK property professionals and how the current UK professional indemnity insurance (PI) market is responding.
The last few years have seen some of the most challenging trading conditions for UK property professionals. With continued uncertainty and turbulent times ahead, we discuss the ever-evolving risks faced by property professionals and how to best anticipate and mitigate risk going forward.
INCREASED CLAIMS FREQUENCY
We know from previous experience that during an economic downturn claims frequency increases. With the introduction of new legislation and looming regulation of property agents (RoPA) the consumer will enjoy added protection and therefore more rights to pursue property professionals.
Charlie Bending, partner at DAC Beachcroft LLP, who specialises in defending claims against property professionals and their insurers acknowledged saying that, “In addition to lender claims against valuers, particularly by short term lenders, we do anticipate claims by aggrieved landlords against property managers increasing over the next 6-24 months; these are likely to flow from rental default caused by anything from a failure by the property manager to take steps on behalf of the landlord to address maintenance issues to (more likely) tenants being unable to pay rent / refusing to pay rent due to their adverse financial situation.
Having protection from eviction (residential) or protection from forfeiture (business) due to the Coronavirus Act 2020 will only increase landlords’ losses, potentially leading to claims that the property manager failed to vet tenants appropriately. Once the protection ends, property managers will also need to have the capacity to act swiftly in order to kick-start the process; taking care to adhere to time limits and prescribed steps to avoid making a potential bad situation worse.”
In times of need, get the right Support for Your Lettings Business
It has been ten months and 3 days since the UK went into the first Lockdown and just over a year since Wuhan officially announced that Covid-19 existed - this novel Coronavirus which has caused chaos across the globe.
The shift in the way in which we live our lives has been unprecedented and the way we work has most definitely changed beyond belief. GLM has always been at the forefront of training and professional development, however, the last ten months has impacted not only the way we work - on-line delivery Versus Face-to-Face delivery, but the response to the needs of our clients.
Our client base is diverse, ranging from private landlord who self- manage big portfolios to local authorities, charities, trusts, franchisees and high street agents. All have something very key in common - they use our Advice Line, require support and guidance.
Being client focused is where it all begins - what are the requirements? How will they be fulfilled? How does our service assist with the day-to-day running of a lettings business?