Letting agent redress schemes

All letting agents must belong to a letting agent redress scheme.

Letting agent redress schemes look at disputes between you and your letting agent.

You can complain to a redress scheme if your letting agent treats you badly.

You usually need to complain to the letting agent first.

Then you complain to a redress scheme if you are not happy with how the letting agent responds.

Redress schemes are independent.

What are the schemes?

There are 2 government approved redress schemes:

Your agent must tell you which scheme they belong to.

They must show the name of the scheme in their offices and on their website.

The council can fine letting agents up to £5000 if they do not join a redress scheme.

You can complain to a scheme if the letting agent does things like:

charging and not refunding banned fees
not explaining things properly to you
delaying things like getting your references
charging you hidden fees, for example, making you pay more than you should for rent in advance
being rude

You cannot usually complain about problems caused by the landlord unless the letting agent helped cause the problem.

You must give your letting agent a chance to deal with the problem first.

Use the agent's complaints procedure. A complaints procedure tells you the steps to take make a complaint.

Write to the manager if your letting agent does not have a complaints procedure.

Complain to the redress scheme if you've complained to the agent and either:

You must complain within the time limit set by the scheme.

To complain to your agent's redress scheme, follow the steps on the redress scheme's website:

The redress scheme looks into your complaint.

If the redress scheme agrees that you are right, they can tell the letting agent to:

You and the letting agent must do what the scheme says.

You could:

Redress schemes will not deal with your complaint if you start court action.

Use your tenancy deposit dispute resolution service if your complaint is about your deposit.