Letting agent compliance checklist: checks for your agency business

Your agency’s risk is not just an expired certificate. It is an unexplained client balance, a deposit mismatch or an outdated process that nobody owns. Your letting agent compliance checklist should show which business requirements apply, who owns each check and what evidence proves it is complete.

Work through the checks below in order. Keep property compliance and inspection records in separate, linked checklists.

What should your letting agency compliance checklist cover?

Start with your agency business, then connect it to separate property and tenancy checklists. Your business checklist should cover registrations, memberships, insurance records, money controls, terms, responsibilities and evidence.

1. Map where your agency operates and what work it undertakes, including whether it receives or holds client money.
2. Create a working spreadsheet with columns for nation, applicability, check, evidence, responsible person, next review and corrective action.
3. Give every applicable check a named owner. Record why any item is marked not applicable.
4. Link each completed task to evidence, not just a tick or a colleague’s assurance.

This article is information, not legal, tax or financial advice.

Which national requirements should you record separately?

England: letting agents and property managers must join a redress scheme (GOV.UK). Keep your membership evidence accessible and check that it matches your agency’s business details.

In England, property agents in the private rented sector holding client money must belong to a government-approved client money protection scheme (GOV.UK). Client money protection, or CMP, is a separate checklist item from redress.

Wales: use a distinct Welsh checklist rather than treating an England checklist as interchangeable. For example, the Welsh fees rules prohibit specified charges by landlords and letting agents; check the applicable contract and transitional position (Welsh Government).

Scotland: anyone carrying out letting agency work within the statutory definition must be registered on the Scottish Letting Agent Register (Scottish Government). Retain the registration evidence against your agency’s checklist.

In Scotland, agents holding and handling client money must hold CMP insurance or demonstrate equivalent or greater protection through another body or membership organisation. Your agency must also maintain professional indemnity insurance appropriate to its income and work, unless it has equivalent or greater protection through another body or membership organisation (Scottish Government). Keep the relevant policy or protection evidence with your registration records.

In Scotland, you must ensure all staff and subcontracting agents understand and comply with the Letting Agent Code of Practice and residential letting requirements (Scottish Government). Record staff training and check understanding rather than simply filing attendance records.

Northern Ireland: keep a separate national checklist here too. For relevant deposits, protection is required within 28 days of receipt, and the official guidance identifies the agent’s responsibility where a landlord uses an agent (nidirect).

In England and Wales, display relevant landlord and tenant or contract-holder fees prominently at every premises where you deal face-to-face with customers, and publish them on your own website if you have one. In England, also display statements naming your relevant CMP and redress schemes alongside your fee list at customer-facing premises and on your website, with the required third-party website disclosures (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government). Check the public-facing information, not just the certificates in your files.

In England, display your CMP membership certificate in every office where you deal with the public and on your website. Provide it free to anyone who requests it (GOV.UK).

As good practice, retain current certificates, policy schedules, renewal correspondence and applicable conditions together. Check the business name, activities covered and expiry details rather than simply filing the latest email.

Can you explain every client money balance?

A bank balance alone does not tell you whose money you hold. Reconcile the bank, your accounting software and individual client balances using the same cut-off point.

1. Obtain the bank statement and matching software reports.
2. Match the bank balance to the software cash balance, explaining outstanding transactions.
3. Compare the reconciled cash with individual client liabilities, meaning the amounts your records show you owe clients.
4. Investigate unidentified receipts, negative balances, suspense entries and unresolved differences.
5. Record the explanation, supporting evidence, action owner and resolution for each exception.

For example, an unidentified rent receipt should remain an investigation task, not become an assumed payment against whichever tenancy looks most likely. Keep an exception log and make sure someone reviews unresolved items.

If you handle client money in Scotland, the Letting Agent Code of Practice requires you to record and monitor all transactions regularly and reconcile them at least monthly Scottish Government. If routine accounting is difficult to keep on top of, consider whether outsourced client accounting belongs in your operating plan.

Do your deposit records match?

Check deposit records separately from CMP membership. A certificate is not a reconciliation of individual deposits.

1. Export your software deposit ledger and obtain the corresponding scheme records.
2. Match the property, tenant or contract-holder, amount, reference and deposit status.
3. Investigate missing entries, duplicate records, amount differences and deposits still showing against ended tenancies.
4. Keep receipt, protection and prescribed-information tasks in separate fields, with supporting documents and ownership.

In England, a deposit requiring statutory protection must be placed in an approved scheme within 30 days of receipt (GOV.UK). Make the receipt date visible in your workflow.

In England, give the tenant the prescribed deposit information within 30 calendar days of receiving the deposit (GOV.UK). Record delivery separately from protection.

In Wales, comply with the authorised scheme’s initial requirements and provide the required deposit information within 30 calendar days starting with the day the occupation-contract deposit is paid (Welsh Government). Record this against the Welsh contract, using the payment date rather than the occupation date.

In Scotland, lodge the deposit within 30 working days of the tenancy starting. Where it is paid in instalments, lodge each instalment within 30 working days of its payment (Scottish Government).

In Scotland, give the tenant the required deposit information within 30 working days after the tenancy starts (Scottish Government). Keep the tenancy start date visible alongside the information task.

In Northern Ireland, protect a qualifying deposit within 28 calendar days of receipt and give the tenant the required written information within 35 calendar days of the deposit being paid (nidirect). Do not start the information deadline from the protection date.

As good practice, do not let a completed protection task automatically close the information task. Retain the documents and delivery evidence separately so your reviewer can see what actually happened.

Are your fees, terms and tenancy processes current?

Review live templates, website wording, fee schedules and landlord terms together. An updated master document is little help if staff still send an older attachment.

England: for payments within the Tenant Fees Act’s scope, a charge outside the permitted-payments framework is a prohibited payment (legislation.gov.uk). Check charges actually raised, not just your published fee list (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government).

Scotland: private residential tenancy guidance distinguishes rent and a refundable deposit from prohibited additional tenancy charges (Scottish Government). Do not copy England’s fee allowances into Scottish processes.

Northern Ireland: tenants with evidence of paying letting fees can request a refund, but entitlement is not automatic (nidirect). Do not treat this as England’s permitted-payments framework.

In England, the first Renters’ Rights Act changes took effect on 1 May 2026 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government). Work through these checks in your England processes.

1. Check tenancy templates and management software against England’s assured periodic tenancy system. New assured tenancies cannot have an enforceable fixed end date (GOV.UK).
2. Update your England possession workflow so staff do not issue new section 21 notices. Use an applicable possession ground and the prescribed notice process, including the relevant transitional rules for notices served before implementation (GOV.UK).
3. Build the required written tenancy information into your England pre-agreement checklist. Supply it before signing the tenancy agreement or agreeing an oral tenancy (GOV.UK).
4. Audit evidence that every named tenant in an existing covered tenancy in England received the official Renters’ Rights Act Information Sheet by 31 May 2026. For tenancies affected by valid pre-implementation possession notices, check the later deadline linked to conversion to an assured periodic tenancy (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government).
5. Update initial-rent collection controls in England: do not request, encourage or accept rent before the tenancy agreement is signed. After signing and before commencement, the ordinary maximum is one month’s rent, or 28 days’ rent for shorter rental periods, subject to applicable exceptions (GOV.UK).
6. Use the section 13 process and Form 4A for rent increases in England, rather than contractual rent-review clauses. Ordinary increases are limited to once a year, require at least two months’ notice and are restricted during the first year of a tenancy (GOV.UK).
7. Check England advertising and offer-handling instructions: publish an asking rent and do not ask for, encourage or accept offers above it, including unsolicited higher offers (GOV.UK).
8. Review England advertising, applicant screening and referencing instructions for prohibited discrimination against applicants receiving benefits or with children. Apply the rules for assured and regulated tenancies, including the defined exceptions (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government).

Keep Right to Rent appropriately scoped: the scheme applies to premises let in England, not across all UK nations (Home Office).

Have you separated AML, sanctions and information handling?

Across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, HMRC’s letting-agency anti-money laundering registration scope includes individual rents of €10,000 or more per month where the rental length is at least one month (HM Revenue & Customs). If your agency meets that test, add HMRC registration to your checklist.

Make the checklist practical: include your business risk assessment, customer due diligence procedures and staff training records. Assign responsibility for keeping these current and make sure staff know how to raise concerns.

Across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, financial sanctions reporting obligations for relevant letting agency work have no monetary rental threshold (Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation). Do not use the anti-money laundering rent threshold to exclude work from your sanctions procedures.

As good practice, record who handles screening concerns and how staff escalate them. For personal information, review access permissions, document storage, sharing methods and leavers’ access, with a named owner for each action.

In England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, your agency’s processing of personal data falls under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Compliance is not limited to paying a data protection fee (GOV.UK). Record applicable data protection duties on your business checklist and review the privacy information you give to people whose information you handle.

Frequently asked questions

How can you check whether staff use the checklist?

Ask a member of staff to walk you through a recent instruction using the checklist. Look for steps they skipped, wording they found unclear and tasks they completed outside the recorded process.

What should you do when a landlord pushes back on your checks?

Explain what you need and why, and record the response. Do not let pressure to take on an instruction turn an unresolved concern into a completed task.

How can you keep a checklist manageable across branches?

Keep a shared master version with a clear process for updating it. Ask branches to flag practical problems so local workarounds do not quietly become different procedures.

Where should you start if the checklist reveals a backlog?

Prioritise tasks that are overdue or could put client money or a live tenancy at risk. Give each outstanding action an owner and a target completion date, then track it through to completion.

The Letting Partnership provides outsourced client accounting and client money compliance services to letting agents. For your next client money or deposit review, explore TLP Comply CMP and Deposit HealthChecks.

Talk to our team