Archive

Propertymark is demanding equal treatment with the social housing sector. Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove intends to boost standards in social housing...

The Chancellor has one last chance to come good on the election promise of lowering the burden of business rates –...

A letting agent who stole over £40,000 from her employer was caught when a bank queried the use of a company...

The boss of a prominent UK lettings and property management agency says new regulations planned for the industry are to be...

Harlow council says it wants to take a harder line against agents and landlords who knowingly let unsafe and substandard properties...

The Property Redress Scheme has released its latest list of expelled agents - mostly for rental misdemeanours and/or failure to pay...

Colliers, the agency and property consultancy, has issued another outspoken attack on government policy - this time prompted by a formal...

Foxtons is to give its agents access to a compliance management and checking service. Fran Giltinan, Managing Director - Property Management &...

The Property Redress Scheme, one of two government-approved redress services, has produced a list of recently-expelled agencies. All agencies must be a...

Two agents who helped establish a multi-million-pound drugs ring in two cities have been jailed. Ossama Omar and Mohamed Latif ran Platinum...

Several lettings agents have been expelled from The Property Ombudsman scheme; they are amongst eight named as having been kicked out...

The head of a Martin & Co office in Wolverhampton has been jailed over fraudulent activity. A court heard that Bhavander Singh...

A lettings agent has been banned from holding office in a company for 11 years for abusing Covid loans - but...

Five agencies have been expelled from The Property Ombudsman scheme - all for compliance failures. The first is Home Trader Properties, in...

An accreditation scheme says the government database of rogue letting agents should be expanded.  The government is committed to creating a new Property...

The former president of ARLA Propertymark has made an outspoken attack on the government for failing to regulate the agency industry. Maxine...

David Votta from the Kent-based Votta Sales and Lettings has been revealed as the new ARLA Propertymark President. He has been in...

Propertymark has hit back at the latest demand by politicians for rent controls. The London mayor Sadiq Khan renewed his call for...

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan wants is introducing a new qualification and training for borough council housing enforcement officers to...

Two agencies have been expelled from The Property Ombudsman scheme for failing to pay compensation awards. Thamlet Estates, based in east London,...

A council is warning letting agents to adhere to health and safety laws or else face the legal consequences. Telford & Wrekin...

ARLA Propertymark has launched a radical programme of reform for the private rental sector - getting in before the government’s own...

A letting agency has been issued with penalty notices worth £3,000 for operating illegally. Back in 2014 it became a legal requirement...

Effective enforcement is crucial to stamp out rogue lettings agents and protect consumers says safeagent. In the latest edition of its Effective...

The deal to introduce rent controls in Scotland - the result of a deal between two parties in the Scottish Parliament...

New rules out for consultation concerning block management aim to improve professionalism across the sector, root out rogue agents, and increase...

The Property Ombudsman and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors are seeking views of agents, landlords and tenants on a new...

There has still been no formal response to a government consultation on the database of rogue agents and landlords, 25 months...

A local Trading Standards team is clamping down on rogue letting agents. Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay Trading Standards Service has launched...

The local media in Manchester have published photographs of a property operated by a lettings agency was found to have multiple...

A London council has secured banning orders against rogue property agents who were previously fined over £70,000 for letting an unlicensed...

The Association of Residential Letting Agents' wing of Propertymark says the recent expulsion of three agents from The Property Ombudsman demonstrates the...

A lettings agency director has been issued with a Criminal Behaviour Order for unlawfully evicting a tenant back in 2019. CFDP Ltd, trading as...

An agency has been hit with a £330,000 bill after being found guilty of poor management of an HMO. Magistrates have found...

A huge trading standards operation clamping down on lettings agents who fail to abide by Client Money Protection rules has been...

An overwhelming 98 per cent of agents who are members of The Property Ombudsman scheme pay compensation when an investigation is...

A lettings firm has been ordered to pay over £18,000 after failing to provide adequate living conditions for his tenants. Chelmsford magistrates...

An agent has been banned from being a company director after tax offences involving hundreds of thousands of pounds, or possibly...

A Liberal Democrat Baroness says she is to make a last-ditch bid in the House of Lords tomorrow to stop evictions...

A Liberal Democrat bid is underway to accelerate the government timetable to scrap Section 21. The Renters’ Rights Bill put forward by government...

The Property Ombudsman has announced the expulsion of eight agencies, all for contravening TPO codes of practice. Most of the expulsions were...

The safeagent accreditation business says it has helped secure the conviction of a rogue lettings agent who falsely claimed membership of...

A lettings agent who stole over £23,000 from tenants to pay for his gambling habit and pay off debt has escaped...

An agent has been disqualified from managing companies for five years after she failed to safeguard £28,000 worth of tenants’ deposits...

A London council has caught out a rogue lettings agency for illegally operating two properties, with issues ranging from gas safety...

Councils that have been awarded additional cash injections by government could use their windfalls to enhance their enforcement of the private...

The Labour party has mocked the government’s £4m new funding for councils to combat rogue agents and landlords as “puny.” A statement...

The Association of Residential Letting Agents and The Guild of Property Professionals have both given their backing to the government’s latest...

The government has announced an additional £4m in funding for local councils to combat rogue agents and landlords - but it’s...

The government has this week published a learning toolkit for local authorities to help them with enforcement against rogue landlords and...

Two London agencies have been expelled from The Property Ombudsman scheme for failing to honour two compensation awards. The first is Chase...

There’s a warning this morning that the root-and-branch reform of the agency industry recommended by a government-backed working party will be...

Local authorities are failing in their duty to prosecute criminal letting agents, the National Landlords Association (NLA) has warned. The NLA says...

The Tenant Fees Act comes into effect in England tomorrow - but a senior lettings expert is questioning whether it will...

A former employee of Martin & Co has admitted operating a fraud scheme that involved agency clients paying money into his...

A rogue letting agent has been ordered to pay £42,596 in fines and costs of £10,626 after pleading guilty to a...

The Association of Residential Lettings Agents says it backs a new Trading Standards-led body which will enforce the Fees Ban starting  on...

A lettings agency and its director have been fined a total of £30,000 for failing to licence HMOs and giving sham...

The news this week that even individual private landlords must join a redress scheme is just the latest in an onslaught...

Three brothers and a property management company have received fines and a confiscation order, and must pay costs, following what a...

A rental campaigner claims the amount of money stolen this year by crooked lettings agents and landlords has topped the £1.3m...

The National Approved Letting Scheme has published the latest version of its Effective Enforcement Toolkit - aimed at helping councils clamp...

A lettings trade body has welcomed extra government funding for English councils to clamp down on criminal landlords. But the Residential Landlords...

The Guardian says the government is committed to making a datebase of rogue letting agents and landlords available to tenants. The newspaper quotes...

November 5 is the next key date for the passage of the Tenants’ Fees Bill, the measure which is likely to...

A managing agent who used ‘ghost tenants’ as a front so that she could cram 16 people into one overcrowded house...

A lettings agent described as ‘rogue’ by a London council, along with two lettings companies, have been heavily fined for operating...

The Association of Residential Letting Agents has heaped praise on a local authority which has fined 27 lettings and managing agents...

This week marks a major milestone in Mayor of London Sadiq Khan's efforts to crack down on the capital's rogue letting...

A leading PropTech entrepreneur says he welcomes reforms currently moving through Parliament to professionalise the lettings sector - but he wants...

The government has this morning - Easter Sunday - announced a crackdown on rogue letting agents in the shape of a...

Romans has thrown its weight behind the banning orders being introduced in April which could see rogue letting agents and landlords...

The Association of Residential Letting Agents and other trade bodies have not yet responded to the government’s announcement over the holiday...

The new online database identifying rogue letting agents and landlords will save lives according to the London Fire Brigade. We wrote about...

The first London boroughs are now rolling out the Greater London Authority’s ‘Rogue Landlord and Agent Checker’ - allowing tenants to...

Industry figures have broadly welcomed the latest consultations and proposed additional regulation for the lettings sector, announced by the government yesterday.   The...

PropTech firm PayProp has welcomed the latest measures to clamp down on rogue elements within the lettings industry - but warns...

Trading Standards says representatives from 15 departments will today visit lettings and property management firms across London in a bid to...

Newham council is to set up the UK’s first letting agents rating scheme to protect residents and landlords from rogue agents.   The...

Crooked letting agents have been convicted of stealing almost £700,000 of tenants’ deposits in the first half of 2017.   Campaigning letting agent...

The National Approved Lettings Scheme has called for the London Mayor’s new rogue agents’ database to be extended to include those...

Letting agents who have broken the law are set to be ‘named and shamed’ by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan,...

The Residential Landlords Association has broken ranks with the Association of Residential Letting Agents by opposing an ARLA-backed public database of...

The government’s formal consultation on its proposed ban for fees levied on tenants by agents has been greeted with derision and...

A leading letting agent campaigning against rental sector deposits is warning that the industry might be hit with “astronominal” insurance premiums...

New legislation coming into force today gives local authorities in England tough new powers to crack down on rogue agents and...

As the industry awaits the delivery of today's Spring Budget, the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) has called on the government...

A trade body has backed government plans to introduce so-called ‘banning orders’ for rogue letting agents and landlords, but it says...

One of London’s leading politicians has created guidelines to help individuals ‘secret shop’ in a bid to expose what she claims...

The government has launched an official consultation process on a package of measures to crack down on what it calls ‘rogue...

An estate agent from Devon who conned landlords, tenants and even his friends out of a total of £157,250 has been...

The Local Government Association, representing 370 councils across England and Wales, is calling on the public to speak out against rogue...

The demonisation of agents continues with the launch of a web-based application designed to “enable local authorities to take action against rogue...

The Local Government Association says recent prosecutions show that councils are cracking down on illegal evictions by landlords and their agents...

MPs have given their backing to a government proposal to ban rogue letting agents and landlords who repeatedly break private rental...

Eviction specialist company Landlord Action wants the government to complement its action against rogue letting agents and tenants with a ‘rogue...

The Housing and Planning Bill returns to the House of Commons tomorrow when the remaining stages of the legislation resume after...

It may be almost Christmas but the government is this week unveiling new laws to combat what it sees as the...

A local authority has issued a press release branding a landlord as “unscrupulous” after he was ordered to pay £7,300 in...

A property investment search portal has launched an online petition via the UK Parliament website, calling for a national register of...