Estate and letting agencies enforcement

Estate and letting agencies enforcement

Documents to help officers with the enforcement of estate and letting agents.

Estate agencies enforcement

Our estate agency compliance toolkit gives local authority enforcement officers clear and concise guidance on how to assess whether local estate agencies comply with property sector requirements. 

It includes:

  • background to important industry legislative requirements
  • best practice steps to confirm compliance
  • template letters
  • example scenarios

To access the toolkit, join our KHub Group

Letting agencies and property management enforcement

Our Introduction to the NTS Estate and Letting Agency Team gives basic background information on: 

  • the requirements of lettings legislation enforcement in England 
  • available resources to help enforcement

To access this information, join our KHub Group

The Tenant Fees Act 2019 and relevant legislation

We’ve created guidance for enforcement authorities in applying the Tenant Fees Act 2019 (TFA 2019) (pdf, 567KB) (opens new window) , according to our statutory duty, found in section 25(2) of the Act.  

The guidance:

All enforcement authorities must have regard to this guidance when exercising their functions under the Tenants Fee Act 2019.

We’ve also created further lettings legislation guidance, with template documents. This gives clear and concise information to help officers enforce the provisions of the Act. It’s only available on our KHub group.

It includes:

  • flowcharts for enforcement processes
  • template letters
  • template Notices of Intent for breaches of the Tenant Fees Act 2019 and relevant letting agency legislation
  • template Final Notices for breaches of the Tenant Fees Act 2019 and relevant letting agency legislation

Tenant Fees Act 2019 eLearning enforcement course

We’ve developed an eLearning package that introduces the Tenant Fees Act 2019 and relevant letting agency legislation. 

The package was:

The course: 

  • is for enforcement officers in England
  • gives information and skills with which to take effective enforcement action, when there’s a breach of lettings legislation
  • will benefit all enforcement officers who may undertake enforcement of the Tenant Fees Act 2019 and relevant letting agency legislation, including:
    • trading standards
    • environmental health
    • housing officers

Join our KHub group for more information on: 

  • how to access the course 
  • the topics you’ll cover
  • the Continuous Personal and Professional Development (CPPD) hours available

Enforcement policy for the legislation

As the lead enforcement authority under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, Bristol City Council has adopted an enforcement policy for financial penalties (pdf, 796KB) (opens new window) under the Act and relevant letting agency legislation.

We’re publishing this policy as the national approach, to promote consistency among enforcement authorities.

Other enforcement authorities: 

  • may have different priorities
  • may choose to deviate from this national approach

Before you adopt a different financial penalty notice policy you should:

  • think about your local authority’s constitution
  • get advice from legal services

Our KHub Group 

Our KHub Group is for local authority enforcement officers only.  

We use this group to:

  • share information about our eLearning package and webinars
  • share our guidance and toolkits, available to enforcement authorities only, including:
    • template letters
    • Notices of Intent
    • Final Notices
    • penalty calculators
    • a guide to IDB dissemination
    • post updates on legislative changes and appeal cases

Officers can join our KHub group and use the forum to: 

  • post questions
  • share ideas
  • respond to peers about estate and letting agency regulation