The UK Association of Letting Agents – the smaller of the two letting agents’ trade bodies – says its membership has now topped 1,250. 

Tim Clark, chairman of UKALA, says: “As a result of a good year we have just reached our largest ever membership by exceeding 1,250.  

“We are delighted to be expanding our membership benefits by adding a new tenant referencing service from our partner Canopy. We are owned by our members and all surpluses are invested into improving our member services.”

Meanwhile Chris Hutchinson, Canopy’s chief executive, adds: “We are delighted to be working with the leading small letting agent association in the UK and congratulate them on reaching 1,250 members. We’ve worked hard at Canopy to build a high-quality service that leverages technology alongside our team to speed up the tenant referencing process and reduce fraud by getting closer to data at its source.”

UKALA says the benefits of its membership include client money protection, a redress scheme, online library, helpline, webinars as well as the expanding range of commercial services.

A statement from the organisation claims: “The UK Association of Letting Agents (UKALA) is a professional association that supports letting and management agent members to be successful, stay compliant and provide a high-quality service.

“The organisation represents the interests of members across the UK, works constructively with various government departments and sits on many committees and policy input bodies.

“UKALA membership fees are based on the amount of client money a member business holds. It offers to improve standards through professional development and makes compliance easier by giving automatic membership to both a government-approved Client Money Protection scheme and an Independent Redress Scheme.”