Seventeen letting agents fined by one council in £150,000 transparency crackdown

A letting agent that is now in liquidation and two branches of Foxtons have been named among 17 letting agent offices fined by one authority for failing to comply with legislation.

Tower Hamlets, in London, investigated 401 letting agents and landlords between July 2016 and the end of this May to check compliance with regulations such as fees transparency and displaying how a deposit will be protected.

The council described it as a crackdown on hidden fees.

Tower Hamlets didn’t go into detail for each case but revealed that a total of 27 letting agents, landlords and managing agents have been fined a combined £150,000.

Fines issued ranged from £1,000 to £10,000.

Two Foxtons branches – one in Wapping High Street and one in Canary Wharf – received fines.

Those who have been fined are required to immediately make adjustments to meet legislation requirements. The council says it will carry out further checks shortly to ensure this has been implemented.

Another agent on the list, Citiside Properties – which received negative press coverage earlier this year over the accuracy of its listings – voluntarily wound up the company in April, appointing Edge Recovery as a liquidator.

Citiside was previously a member of The Property Ombudsman but no longer shows up on the membership database.

EYE has tried to contact Citiside Properties on several occasions but has not received a reply.

A TPO spokesman said: “Citiside Properties Ltd ceased to be members in April 2018 as the company ceased trading.”

A spokesman for Tower Hamlets said the law only lets councils chase companies rather than individuals for payment, so if an agency is in liquidation the money has to be written off.

John Biggs, mayor of Tower Hamlets, said: “We are committed to ensuring people wanting to live in our borough are not exploited by rogue letting agents or landlords. We will not tolerate individuals or organisations actively trying to mislead our residents.

“The majority of letting and managing agents in Tower Hamlets successfully help people to settle within our diverse and growing borough. It’s disappointing that a small number are acting dishonestly and misleading people looking for a new home.”

Cllr Sirajul Islam, deputy mayor for housing, said: “We are protecting our residents by ensuring they have all of the information needed prior to renting their property. Transparency from letting agents, managing agents and landlords is imperative to ensure the process is fair for everyone involved.”

The full list of letting agents and managing agents fined is below:

(Some letting agents appear twice if they have been fined for different matters but there are 17 standalone branches in the list)