'Rogue' letting agents fail to register with watchdog

Hundreds of “cowboy” letting agents are operating illegally following a change in the law this week, it was claimed today.

It became a crime to be a letting agent without being registered with one of three approved ombudsman schemes on October 1.

However, a survey carried out by the Property Redress Scheme found that 900 London letting agents had not completed the required paperwork by the end of last week.

In IIford, Harrow and Croydon more that 60 per cent of independent letting agents had not registered by 26 September.

Christopher Hamer, the property ombudsman, said: “There is no grace period for registration. Anyone trading without registering after this week’s new legislation comes into force will be committing a criminal offence.

“It is very likely that these ‘rogue’ agents that fail to register will be caught. For example, if a consumer contacts my office about a dispute, I would need to find out if the agent is registered and I would be obliged to notify the relevant authorities to investigate if they are not.” The new regime is aimed at driving out the bad practices associated with some smaller letting-only property agents.

It comes as separate research found that more than 40 per cent of private tenants in London believe letting fees are a rip-off.