Oxford, 3 September 2021 - Legislate’s CEO, Charles Brecque is interviewed by Letting Agent Today to share 3 tips and best practices to help letting agents in the UK keep on top of legal updates and better manage the client pressures for digital documents and contracts.
Charles Brecque, CEO “2021 has been one of the busiest years in terms of legal updates which are hard to keep track of and act on, especially when official guidance is not clear or decisive. Small businesses aren’t always equipped to act on the updates themselves and shouldn’t need to spend excessive legal fees to stay compliant. Moreover, a digital first experience is now expected for documents and signing which amplifies the pressures small businesses are facing. It was a pleasure to share tips with Letting Agent today on how letting agents and small businesses can manage their legal risk cost effectively and thrive in this new digital era”.
The 5 minute interview can be viewed on demand on Letting Agent Today’s website and below:
About Legislate Technologies
Legislate is an early stage legal technology startup which allows large landlords, letting agents and small businesses to easily create, sign and manage contracts that are prudent and fair. Legislate’s platform is built on a patented knowledge graph which streamlines the contracting process and aggregates contract statistics to quickly unlock valuable insights. Legislate’s team marries technical and legal expertise to create a painless, smart contracting experience for its users. Legislate is backed by leading investors, Parkwalk Advisors and Perivoli Innovations.
Read the Letting Agent Today transcript:
Letting Agent Today: Hi guys, Chris Buckler here with Letting Agent Today, I'm absolutely delighted to be joined by Charles Brecque of Legislate. Charles, we've had a great conversation offline, so whether you're a letting agent in Birmingham, Belfast, Bognor Regis, hit me with your three tips.
Charles Brecque: Well thank you Chris for having me. First of all, you know, there's been a lot of legal updates this year with Covid, which is why it's extremely important to make sure that you're tenancy documents are in order. We know that letting agents follow these updates, but clauses don't always get updated, especially around fees and pets. The second thing is to engage your tenants and landlords on digital platforms, this doesn't just mean sending an email, it means making sure that you have the ability to offer them that virtual platform that they can access their documents, access their contracts, and manage that relationship. And that will responsible-ise then, you will notice better engagement and you'll have less surprises during your lettings. And then finally, don't just stick to the basics, no one likes a standard template, they know that no one likes speaking with robots, you know, if you can offer more than what everyone else offers, and offer a slightly more personalised experience, your tenants and landlords will appreciate it.
Letting Agent Today: Okay brilliant stuff, that all makes sense. What else would you like to share with our viewers?
Charles Brecque: Well, you know, these tips that I've just described, these are all great things that you can do with Legislate. It's free to get started, we offer all the essential documents you need to grow your letting business, and you can sign up on our website www.legislate.tech.
Letting Agent Today: Okay, love the plug. So let's go back to the first tip then Charles, make sure you're updating your documents, so would you set maybe a day aside a month? How do letting agents make sure that they're always compliant? There's so much change, there's so many legislations, how do we make sure we stay ahead of that? What advice would you give?
Charles Brecque: I mean I think contracts are always complicated, contracts are complicated to read, you know, that's why lawyers exist. You can subscribe to newsletters, you can follow the Government's website, but as we've noticed recently, especially around section eight and section 21s, the Government's guidance isn't always clear. So what we would recommend is you do subscribe to, you know, maybe some legal services, or legal firms, who do follow those updates, we also know that obviously landlord associations are up-to-date as well, but again it's all about having the right amount of budget to keep up with those updates. Obviously at Legislate we follow those updates, and we have a newsletter which communicates in plain English what those updates mean, and we maintain those contracts for you so that you don't ever need to worry about having out of date clauses. The most recent update that you might know is especially around UK GDPR as we've left the EU, again it doesn't necessarily have a massive impact in the contract but, you know, it's important to offer a professional experience to anyone you're contracting with by having contracts which are up to date because the moment you land on a tenant or a landlord who knows what they're talking about, then you'll have to answer their questions.
Letting Agent Today: Okay, so there you have it letting agents, make sure your contracts are up to date or sign up to someone, who knows who could it be, that'll do that on your behalf. We've got about a minute left Charles, we talked offline again about going over and above, and you mentioned it at the start for your letting agents and tenants communication, any hints or tips there?
Charles Brecque: Well I mean I think it's always, you know, whatever you do it needs to be genuine. Again sending a virtual card, or, you know, I know letting agents like to sometimes leave a bottle of wine in the property when the tenants move in, those are all examples. I think there's a million other things that you can do, what's important is to make sure that it's authentic because if it's not authentic, someone will notice.
Letting Agent Today: I love it, authenticity all the way, brilliant. Well listen Charles thank you so much from everyone here at Letting Agent Today, we wish you guys at Legislate the best of luck and no doubt we'll speak to you soon.
Charles Brecque: Thank you very much Chris.
Letting Agent Today: Cheers, bye bye.
Charles Brecque: Bye.