Why ARMA Membership is important

Recently I have seen on line comments that imply ARMA is not performing/not suitable/fit for purpose. Some of these comments are written by non member practitioners, some by consumers and others by those seeking to compete as trade bodies. So let me put the record straight. Why would you choose to receive services from a business that has not joined the specialist trade body in their sector and ticked the following boxes?

• You must have been trading for at least 2 years before you can become a corporate member and display the ARMA logo. This is important - ARMA need demonstrable evidence of track record and of trading successfully;
• You must undertake to properly hold and protect your clients money;
• You must provide audited company accounts annually (unless you are separately RICS audited)
• You have to become a member of an approved Ombudsman scheme and have a published complaints procedure;
• You must have a published health and safety statement;
• You must have full professional indemnity insurance and evidence it annually;
• You must agree to abide by the RICS residential management code approved by the Secretary of State;
• You will be given access to training, guidance, free helplines, conferences etc. not available elsewhere.

If your agent is not a member then you need to ask why. The fact that they do not like other ARMA members or cannot meet the membership criteria is insufficient. The fact that they feel that ARMA has not responded to consumer complaints with sufficient rigour is immaterial in this context (and actually untrue - but that story is for another day); since their inception the standard of management has risen immeasurably in the UK - but so too has the number of flats, the complexity and cost of management and the number of agents. In an industry with few barriers to entry this really does provide a degree of assurance.

Most importantly - there are no genuine alternatives to the expertise that ARMA brings and there are certainly none that are in the process of creating a genuinely independent regulatory regime. 

Successful management is about partnerships. The better supported by an expert trade body those partnerships are, the better for all. We all need ARMA more than ever - agents and consumers alike.