Client Money Protection to be made compulsory for all letting agents, says review

Membership of a Client Money Protection scheme must be made compulsory for all letting agents in England, a government working group has concluded following more than six months of written and spoken evidence. This has included evidence from landlords, tenants and letting agents, as well as the various industry bodies including NALS, ARLA, NLA, RLA, RICS and UKALA. The working group, which has been led by Baroness Hayter and Lord Palmer (pictured, right), has revealed in its report that 85% of respondents were in favour of making Client Money Protection compulsory for letting agents, saying that it would help drive up standards across the sector. It also says that efforts to introduce transparency into the industry by making agents publish and highlight their fees and Client Money Protection (CMP) scheme membership, have not worked. Several high profile cases of agents misplacing or spending landlord and tenants funds have come to light during the group’s work, and although it agrees that most agents already have CMP is place, “some mostly small letting agents do not”, the report says. “We heard some quite heart-rending stories from bot tenants and landlords of the losses they incurred.” The introduction of a compulsory scheme is…