Site Tip - Membership Renewal Process [Updated]

Our renewal process has changed!

Over the past year, the committee has been working with the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) to agree a scheme whereby members of either organisation could benefit from membership of both organisations.

You may remember that we put the concept to a member vote at the start of this year and PDPLA members voted 5 to 1 in favour of affiliation.

The Short Version

Membership renewal should be a quick and simple process whether you complete it online or by telephone. The following abbreviated information should be all that you need to renew:

• Direct Debit and card payment options are available:
• DD is £79.95. Visit rla.org.uk/pdpla to complete the process online - please use this specific web address so that we receive a notification when your subscription is completed
• Card payment is £84.95. Call the RLA office on 0161 962 0010 and ask for Diana. There are more processing costs with card transactions, hence the premium
• PDPLA & RLA remain as separate organisations but the RLA are collecting our membership subscriptions and saving us the cost of doing so
• As part of the deal all PDPLA members are able to access all of the benefits of the RLA
• More information is available at rla.org.uk/pdpla or pdpla.com/rla

If you have any issues using the RLA signup process you can contact their Office Manager (Diana Barker) on 03330 142998 / 0161 962 0010 (8:30am until 5pm Monday to Friday).

The Longer Version

Your benefits as a member of the PDPLA will not change - you still have the ability to attend our meetings, access our website, access our preferential insurance and other deals, recommended suppliers, advice and support and you will continue to receive newsletters and emails from us.

From early January, you will also be able to use the RLA website with its wide range of downloadable forms and guides, forums, etc and also, will be able to call their helpline. To enable this, we have sent your contact information to the RLA - they have agreed only to use this information to contact you and will not share it with anyone unless you change your preferences on the RLA website.

The RLA will send you a renewal reminder asking for your membership fee in April - this will be instead of the PDPLA reminder you have had in the past. This one payment will cover the cost of membership to both organisations. We ask that you pay it promptly, any members who have not paid by May will be classed as having lapsed and will no longer belong to, or be able to benefit from, membership of the PDPLA and the RLA. There is no option just to belong to the PDPLA, it is now both or nothing.

You will have free membership of both the PDPLA and the RLA until your renewal date, so this is an added benefit for you.

We believe that our affiliation with the RLA will benefit all of our members. If you want more details on the precise workings of the relationship, there is a Document of Understanding available here (you will need to be logged in to access this)

Going forward, we will be far more dependent on other sources of income, such as the commission we get from Boswells Insurance, so if at some point you find the RLA insurance offer better than ours, do please talk to us before switching as it is in our interest to ensure you get the best deal.

In the next couple of weeks, you will receive a welcome email from the RLA - please do look out for it. We have also dedicated our February members meeting to an explanation of how to use the RLA services and what benefits are available, so please add 13th February to your diary if this is of interest.

If you require more information please refer to the Document of Understanding, or send an email to the membership secretary (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), or contact us or come along to our next meeting where we will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.