Managing your rented property

When choosing an agent, always ensure: 

Your agent is registered with a redress scheme.  

The two redress schemes are the Property Redress Scheme and The Property Ombudsman scheme.

Your agent is registered with a client money protection scheme. 

A Client Money Protection Scheme is an insurance backed scheme and there are currently six government approved schemes, including; 

• Propertymark (previously the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA)); 
• Safeagent (previously the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS));
• The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS);
• The UK Association of Letting Agents (UKALA); 
• CM Protect; and 
• Money Shield (which is administered by Propertymark). 

It is advisable that landlords check with the schemes themselves, using the online member search tools, to ensure that agents are members. 

Landlords can also check the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agents Team’s ‘Property Agent Checker’. 

Check that your agent complies with the legislation, especially that they are displaying their landlord fees and permitted tenant fees, they are displaying details of their redress scheme and client money protection scheme on their website and in their office and that they have published their client money protection certificate on their website. Landlords are also legally entitled to request a copy of an agent’s client money protection certificate. To see what legislation agents needs to comply with please see: Financial Penalties – Letting Agent Information – Newham Council. 

If your agent is protecting your tenants’ deposits, landlords should also ensure that this has been done within 30 days of a tenancy starting, as landlords are ultimately liable if a deposit is not protected. If a deposit is not protected and the tenant has not been given the prescribed information, then a tenant can claim their deposit back and up to three times the amount in compensation. 

Guaranteed Rent or Rent to Rent:

Companies offering a ‘Guaranteed Rent’ agreement, sometimes referred to as Rent to Rent, is not always the best option. 

These types of agreements mean that landlords give their property to a managing agent, usually for 3 years and the agent promises to pay the rent whether the property is occupied or not. This often does not happen, as landlords are often not paid when a property remains empty, plus, they lose all control of their property during that period and often longer. Sometimes landlords have to pursue the agent and any tenants through the courts, in order to get their properties back. Also, we have received numerous complaints from landlords where their properties have had thousands and thousands of pounds’ worth of damage, with little recourse against the agent or ultimate tenants. Often the properties have been used for illegal activity. If what an agent is offering seems too good to be true, then it probably is too good to be true. 

Companies who offer Guaranteed Rental Agreements / Rent to Rent, are often not members of a redress scheme or a client money protection (CMP) scheme, as they do not come within the legal definition of an ‘letting agent’ or ‘managing agent’ due to the fact that the agent becomes the tenant of the superior landlord (homeowner/leaseholder) and then sublets to the ultimate tenant, so the agent becomes ‘the landlord’. Therefore, using a company like this gives landlords little or no recourse when they lose money or try to gain possession of their properties.  

Private Sector Housing Standards have a Trading Standards Officer working within the team who carries out thorough investigations into non-compliant letting agents.  If you have a concern about an agent based in Newham, then please report it via email to: privatehousing@newham.gov.uk.

For more information, please see: Letting Agent Information – Newham Council