The letting fees ban in England is expected to be introduced in April 2019 at the latest, the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) has confirmed, to give agents time to implement the looming Client Money Protection (CMP) regulations before the ban goes live.

“Mandatory CMP needs to come into force before the letting fees ban does to prevent some more unscrupulous agents from propping up their businesses through their client funds when the ban comes into force,” ARLA’s Chief Executive David Cox told The Negotiator.

He also revealed that ARLA is to tender to become one of the government’s approved CMP providers when the scheme goes live.

Approved provider

In its consultation document the government says it would prefer for CMP to be administered by an approved list of providers rather than civil servants running a centrally-run scheme, in the same way the deposits protection and redress schemes work.

ARLA’s existing CMP scheme – members must have it in place to join – is the largest in the industry with £1.6 billion of the total £2.7 billion client funds held by the industry covered.

“It’s all about creating a level playing field – people assume that the industry is regulated, and that client money protection exists but they don’t understand that there is a two-tier market,” says David (pictured, left).

“It’s a massive step forward and that the government has responded to the call, which we’ve been making now for years and years.”

Until the new rules were suggested following the review of CMP by Baroness Hayter and Lord Palmer that concluded in October last year, the Government had only ‘encouraged’ letting agent firms to join CMP schemes and landlords and tenants to ‘choose’ agents with CMP via the Safe Agent Kite Mark. The same review also estimated that  between 60% and 80% of agents already offered CMP.