Meet the Trainer - Julie Ford
In a new series, we will be sitting down with some of our expert trainers to find out more about their specialist knowledge and the courses they deliver. Here we meet Julie Ford, who has been delivering our Renters’ Rights Bill course, along with rent arrears and energy crisis training.
The Renters’ Rights course has been one of the most popular on offer from the NRLA Training Academy over the last six months, with the bill due to pass into law later this year.
From the moment the proposals were announced Julie Ford was keen to find out all there was to know about how landlords would be affected.
“I am that sad individual who, when there is a new piece of legislation announced, am there with a highlighter pen and a load of post it notes - I’m in my element,” Julie says, during a wide-ranging chat, which veers from the future of the private rented sector to Ricky Gervais.
“I started off in new build sales, but quickly worked out I couldn’t sell anything to anyone – I didn’t have the attention span to convince people if they weren’t going to buy it there and then.”
She did, however, find her calling.
“With a purchase if people had problems, something like a tile falling off or if there was something wrong with the bath, I would spring into action and I began to realise I was a natural problem solver.”
From there Julie started working for a major property and asset company in London managing portfolios for footballers including former Liverpool and Manchester City striker Craig Bellamy, now the Wales manager, as well as television stars such as Ricky Gervais, who is ‘very nice’.
Personal circumstances then took her to Norfolk, where she set up her own lettings company and worked with a homelessness charity, getting properties from private landlords and leasing them to the charity.
She has also worked for Property Redress as a mediator, as well as working for the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) as a housing and homeless law specialist.
Perfectly placed
These varied roles in around the private rented sector mean she is perfectly placed to deliver training and answer complex questions on everything from rent arrears to legislation change during in-person and eClassroom sessions.
She said “I have three decades of experience, working in buildings, lettings, at the Citizens Advice and now as a trainer, so there isn’t much I haven’t seen.
“However, what’s frightening me at the moment is the number of landlords and letting agents still unaware of all the changes in legislation up ahead”, she says. “There are people out there who still don’t believe the Renters’ Rights Bill will come into force, but this change is coming, and landlords do need to be ready for it.”
The NRLA Renters’ Rights course frequently sells out as soon as new dates are released, and Julie still gets a kick from delivering it and the others she teaches.
“Training is key to improving the private rented sector overall. Landlords who are educated in all aspects of lettings will be offering a better level of service to their tenants – and professionalise and improving the industry as a whole can only be a good thing.”
To sign up to Julie’s courses clicking any of the below links:
More information
As well as offering more than 40 different training courses for landlords and agents the NRLA’s Training Academy offers landlord members the chance to pick up CPD points to be used towards accreditation. To find our more, click here.
