BLOG: Harassment law changes: what agents need to know now

Last year we set out the harassment reforms heading toward UK employers. The Employment Rights Act 2025 has since received Royal Assent, and the picture has sharpened – with confirmed dates, a tribunal test of the “reasonable steps” defence, and one change pushed back further than expected.

Here’s what estate and letting agents need to know now.

The Act received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025, and the government has since published a firmer timetable than the loose “October 2025 to April 2026” window we originally flagged.

Three things have changed: dates are now confirmed, a tribunal case has shown how the “reasonable steps” defence plays out in practice, and the NDA ban has slipped well beyond its expected start date.

1. “All reasonable steps” and third-party liability: confirmed for October 2026

This is the change that matters most for agency staff. From October 2026, the duty to prevent sexual harassment rises from “reasonable steps” to “all reasonable steps,” and employer liability for harassment of staff by clients, contractors, or members of the public is reintroduced for the first time since 2013.

Unlike the old “three strikes” rule, which required two prior incidents before liability attached, the new duty applies from the first incident, with no threshold.

The Government has indicated expectations will be calibrated to what employers can realistically control – preventing harassment by a colleague differs from preventing it by a customer. That doesn’t reduce agents’ exposure: unsupervised, public-facing contact (viewings, valuations, key handovers) is a specific risk factor flagged across the legal commentary on these reforms.

There’s a useful illustration of how tribunals assess this defence, even though the case predates the ERA 2025. In Campbell v Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Hammond [2025] EAT 42, a race harassment claim was dismissed partly because the employer had taken all reasonable steps – induction training on its core values, an annual review covering those values, workplace posters, and equality and diversity training refreshed every three years, with the latest session just weeks before the incident.

It’s not a case about the new law, but it signals what tribunals expect: documented, recent, repeated action – a bar that only rises once the standard shifts to “all reasonable” steps.

From October 2026, an agency will be liable for harassment of staff by a landlord, tenant, buyer, or contractor unless it can show it took all reasonable steps to prevent it.”

For estate and letting agents, this deserves close attention. From October 2026, an agency will be liable for harassment of staff by a landlord, tenant, buyer, or contractor unless it can show it took all reasonable steps to prevent it – “we didn’t know” or “it happened off-site” won’t be a defence. What matters to a tribunal is evidence: documented risk assessments, recent and repeated training, and a reporting channel staff will actually use.

That last point is where many agencies fall short. An internal-only route (a line manager, a shared HR inbox) carries far less evidential weight, particularly where the person involved is a manager or a client the business doesn’t want to upset.

A genuinely independent, confidential channel is one of the clearest ways to demonstrate the defence, and it’s the gap platforms like The Sentry close: giving staff a fully private reporting channel through an app on their own phone, while giving employers the timestamped evidence trail this new standard demands.

2. Whistleblowing protection for harassment disclosures: now in force

This change took effect on 6 April 2026. Disclosures relating to sexual harassment now explicitly qualify as protected disclosures under whistleblowing law, provided the worker reasonably believes the disclosure is made in the public interest. Anti-retaliation protection now attaches automatically to harassment reports, and any policy still describing harassment reporting purely as an HR matter is out of date.

This is where reporting infrastructure earns its keep twice over. A private, confidential channel doesn’t just support the “all reasonable steps” duty above – it’s what makes whistleblowing protection meaningful in practice.

Staff are far more likely to come forward without going through a line manager and an agency relying solely on internal, unmonitored routes has a harder time showing it actively supported protected disclosures rather than simply not obstructing them.

3. Ban on NDAs silencing harassment complaints: delayed

This change has moved back. The core rule – voiding any clause that tries to prevent a worker alleging or disclosing harassment or discrimination – is settled in the Act, but the government is still consulting on the detail, including a mandatory cooling-off period and conditions for limited “excepted agreements.”

It’s now expected to take effect in 2027, not the 2026 window originally flagged. No action needed yet beyond keeping an eye on developments.

4. What hasn’t changed

Uncapped compensation and the 25% uplift for failing the “all reasonable steps” duty remain as reported. Fire-and-rehire restrictions, Fair Work Agency powers, and the wider unfair dismissal reforms are progressing too, landing mostly between October 2026 and January 2027.

Here is what agents should be doing now:

– Treat October 2026 as the real deadline: risk-assess client, landlord, and viewing interactions, not just internal conduct.

– Refresh training regularly, and keep records. Timing and repetition matter as much as content. Give staff a reporting channel genuinely independent of line management, and document every report and outcome.

– Update whistleblowing policies to reflect harassment’s protected-disclosure status.

– Keep an eye on the NDA reforms, but don’t rewrite settlement templates until the regulations are finalised.

This article is provided for general information and does not constitute legal advice.

The Sentry gives estate and letting agency staff a 100% private, confidential channel to report harassment or misconduct via an app on their own phone, independent of line management. It also includes field safety tools and check-in systems for viewings and off-site visits, building a recorded trail of activity as staff move through their day. Together, these give employers the documented evidence the “all reasonable steps” defence now demands, and give staff the confidential route that makes whistleblowing protections real. The platform now supports businesses across property, block management, facilities management and hospitality, sectors that share the same lone-working and client-facing exposure. With third-party liability arriving in October 2026, it’s worth asking whether your current setup would hold up.