Requirements of letting agents

Letting and property management agents must by law:

• belong to a redress scheme

• display a list of charges at their premises or website.

Before you use a letting agent or management agent

• Make sure the agent belongs to one of the government-approved redress schemes. By law, agents must belong to one of the three schemes. These were set up to help resolve complaints made by consumers and private landlords about the services provided by agents.

• Get a list of charges you will incur and an explanation of what the charges are for. A letting or property management agent must display a list of charges at its business premises and website, if they have one.

• Find out who the owner of the business is, in case you need to make a claim against them. Agents must display details of ownership at the office of the business and on their paperwork. This can be the name of a person(s) or a limited company. Agents must also display at their business premises or website, details of membership of a redress scheme.

Details of redress schemes

The following websites have details of members of their redress scheme:

• Property Ombudsman (TPOS) 

• Ombudsman Services: Property 

• Property Redress Scheme 

What to do if you're having problems

If you're having problems with an agent:

1. Ask for details of its complaints procedure (the redress schemes require all businesses to have one).

2. Put the complaint in writing to the agent.

3. If the complaint remains unresolved after eight weeks, contact the relevant redress scheme for help.

You can also register complaints and get advice about an agent at Citizens Advice Consumer Service (CACS) on 03454 04 05 06. CACS will tell us about the incident.