Best landlord association?

So I’ve noticed quite a few people are members of the NRLA on here, can anyone give me an up to date opinion on their service?

I’m currently a happy member of the GRL, but it doesn’t seem to be as popular on here for some reason (perhaps because it’s slightly more expensive). I’ve got a couple of specific questions - does the NRLA have a ‘tenancy builder’ type tool to customise their template agreements & what’s their forms & documents library like?

Opinions on other landlord associations welcome too, particularly if they cover the South coast.

I am in the NRLA. Good info and advice from them. When they had physical meetings excellant. None now all online. Now since amalgamation they only seem interested in selling services , insurance etc, I am a bit disappointed in their now commercial attitude

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Sad to hear, but explains the flash website. Never had a sales email from the GRL but never a physical meeting, either. You can pay for their tenant referencing & their new in-house digital signing platform, but that’s it - no financial services type things & not sold to me much except to announce when it was launched.

Ref NRLA
I agree with Colin. When the pandemic broke I asked for help regarding council tax. I was told in writing to get a project manager and they could not do anything. They were unsympathetic that the government asked us to shoulder a huge financial hit with nothing in return. Only when numerous landlords complained did they try and do anything. Their contracts are ok and so is their legal advice but as a union they are dreadful. It is just one commercial gimmick.
They are like my MP, useless!!

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I wouldnt say they’re useless, but they have changed since amalgamation. They are less responsive to members and landlords have questioned some of their policy positions. The advice is still good, as are the documents. They dont really have a tenancy builder tool, but have several TA templates and an addendum template with some suggested additional clauses.

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Thanks David - do you mind if I ask the type of policy positions they’ve been criticised for?

Most recently, their report on the failure of Councils to tackle rogue landlords. Before that, several other policy positions they adopted and perhaps more crucially, lobbying urged by members on issues such as EPC proposals that they have not responded to.

Colin, we found them useless and didn’t renew our subscription after only one year with them. It was take, take, take and buy, buy, buy. Couldn’t be bothered with them!

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I don’t agree that the NRLA legal advice is good. I have seen some bad advice - worse than undergraduate essay writing. I left. I haven’t found a good alternative yet.

I agree. The RLA used to be very good and I had some really helpful interchanges with some really expert people. Since it became the NRLA they simply try to sell you stuff and bombard you with emails trying to do so. Their ’ advice’ is simplistic to say the least, and if you ask they try to direct you to their web pages or to other paid services I would have cancelled except I forgot, and it is useful for access to discounted mortgage services and standard tenancy docs, which are ok ( not brilliant, but ok). They mainly represent the interest of incorporated landlords, not individuals and really there is a conflict of interest there particularly on tax. If I could find a good alternative for individual landlords, I would be interested.

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