Property Mark Property Professional Autumn 2022

MEMBER SHIP

WHAT DO YOU DO ALL DAY? AN INSIGHT INTO THE WORK – AND LIFE – OF A PROPERTY PROFESSIONAL

MATTHEW EADES COMPLIANCE AUDITOR I’m a compliance auditor, providing legal and regulatory expertise to businesses.

I joined Propertymark in March this year.

I work with estate and letting agents, reviewing and ensuring everything our members do is compliant with regulations and legislation. That can be a reminder of what they should be doing but also providing protection so they know where they stand with things such as liability and trading standards, data protection and local authority enforcement. It’s really wide-ranging.

The property industry is busy, with a lot of regulations. Generally companies want to be compliant but don’t want to spend a lot of time ensuring that they are. For example, data protection policy has to be reviewed, with updates included, every two years. Not everyone knows that. During visits, I’ll ask agents to provide evidence of their terms of business, tenancy agreements, liability insurance and procedures, and make recommendations for improvements.

I’ve always been interested in the industry and was a conveyancer after law school – I did a degree in psychology and then a postgrad diploma in law. Like many, I was a victim of the crash in 2008, and after I was made redundant from conveyancing that year, I worked for the Law Society in complaint management following a similar role at the Healthcare Commission. I then set up my own company and worked as a criminal defence advocate for about 10 years before retraining in compliance and qualifying as a data protection officer.

I worked as a compliance manager for a firm of solicitors before joining Propertymark.

My background has given me good grounding. Legislation surrounding contracts, money laundering and terms of business are complex documents and you need to be confident going through them; the language they’re written in is not conversational! A certain level of patience is needed too, in order to absorb the information and, similar to advising on criminal action, give guidance.

I’m there as a shortcut. Regulations for agents have increased massively and my role is to help identify issues and

USEFUL SKILLS COMMUNICATION Building relationships with companies is crucial.

ABILITY Knowledge of law, finance and regulation transfers well in a compliance role.

RISK MANAGEMENT The capacity to imagine and foresee scenarios that could result in problems for a business.

— PERSONAL QUALITIES CONFIDENCE A genuine interest in the sector helps keep you current, which builds self-confidence and gains the trust of a company. Technology provides the tools, but people still love working with people.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL Endless rules, regulations and legislation change constantly – you have to have powers of concentration to recognise that what appears to be a small error can have big repercussions. If, like me, you annoy friends by pointing out grammatical and spelling errors, auditing could be the job for you!

offer preventative measures for potential problems, not be a disciplinary body.

I want to encourage our members to ask questions, not bury problems, and see us as a support network.

I’ve been pleasantly pleased by the feedback, which has been positive and appreciative. Some agents think a call from an auditor is ominous – that we’re going just to clear out stuff – and I was anticipating resistance from some, but it rarely happens. Seeing people face to face has real benefits.

If I’m working from the office in Warwickshire, my day is nine to five. I use this time to put procedures in place and experiment with new forms of audits – synchronising and integrating data using IT. In management meetings we then discuss how this can be used to improve our service.

The rest of the time is spent on visits.

Some are more straightforward than others, depending on the size and structure of the agency I’m auditing. I can be away for a couple of days and nights at a time.

Historically, a report would be written up afterwards with recommendations and a follow-up, but we are trialling new formats for the reports, which are in development.

I don’t have fancy lunches – I go to the local supermarket across the road from the office, or grab something if I’m away. I like the change from an office base to being out and about, and the hours are sociable too!

At Propertymark we want to get away from the ‘audit’ label and want agents to view a visit from us as being more compliance based, updating anything they may have missed and improving their service. We’re also looking to scale up and have auditors in London and up north to work alongside us here in Warwick. I feel very positive about the organisation I love the variety my post offers and working with experienced people with lots of knowledge. I like to help people with the stuff they don’t want to be doing. We acknowledge agents are busy trying to run a business, and we are keen to help with some of the background work that is sometimes overlooked – I can help simplify the process and lift the burden for them.

AUTUMN 2022 _ PROPERT Y PRO FESSIONAL / 45