Tenant Fees enforcement toolkit rolled out

Posted by Votta Sales & Lettings on 30th September 2019 -

The National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team (NTSELAT), has rolled out an enforcement toolkit to trading standards officers across the UK in order to help crack down on non-compliance.

An estimated 20 per cent of letting agents are still not signed up to a Client Money Protection scheme despite it being made a legal requirement in April.

NTSELAT is working with local authorities and the six approved CMP providers to spot those who have not signed up as well as those not displaying their chosen scheme by providing a step-by-step guide to the legalities and requirements of regulating letting agents.

Trading Standards Officers have the enforcement to impose fines of up to £5,000 for any firm that fails to display this information.

James Munro, Head of NTSELAT, said: “We act as the lead enforcement authority for the Tenant Fees Act.

“The team is working with the approved CMP schemes and local authorities to ensure that agents who are required to belong to a scheme are correctly registered with one of the six approved schemes.

“We have arrangements with local authorities to refer cases for enforcement, and a backstop arrangement where we will take action in cases where a local authority cannot.

“With the support of the schemes, we are also proactively monitoring websites to ensure agents are clearly displaying their membership.”