A county council is urging people to complain if they believe letting agents are failing to comply with consumer legislation.
Staffordshire county council’s Trading Standards service has teamed up with the Central England Trading Standards Authorities group to check how compliant letting agents are in the county.
A statement announcing the campaign says Trading Standards officers in Staffordshire are “providing advice and support to letting businesses” to ensure they are aware of their duties and are compliant - with any failure to follow the rules potentially resulting in fines of up to £30,000.
And the statement goes on to say “People can report cases of letting agents failing to comply with the law to the Citizens Advice Consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133.”
A county council spokeswoman Victoria Wilson says: “Helping protect communities, which includes tenants who can be vulnerable, remains a priority for our Trading Standards team and that’s what this new project will help us do. There are hundreds of letting agents across the region handling client money every day, so any businesses not following the laws could leave considerable sums of tenant and/or landlord money at risk.
“Our officers are working jointly with housing officers from district and borough councils, providing advice and guidance to letting agents to make sure that they are aware of their duties. We know that many agents are already doing what is required but this is a chance for those not following the rules to get their businesses up to speed.”
The crackdown is supported by the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team.
Its head, James Munro, says: “Our officers are providing advice and guidance to support this enforcement initiative, helping to safeguard up to a billion pounds of consumers’ money. The intelligence gathered from this campaign will be used to support local authority investigations across the country, which will help protect consumers, raise compliance across the industry and boost consumer confidence.”
Since April 2019, letting agents have been required by law to belong to an approved Client Money Protection scheme. Agents are also required to belong to an approved redress scheme and to publish their certificate and other important information on their websites and in their offices.
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We recently took over a portfolio of properties from another agency. It turned out that the rents had all been increased (some of them two years previously) and the increases were simply pocketed by the agent and not passed on to the landlord. Neither trading standards or citizens advice were interested that the landlord was being ripped off! Waste of time!
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