How To Find A Good Letting Agent (And Spot A Bad One)
A good letting agent is barely noticeable. Repairs get sorted, the deposit comes back, and you deal with a person who answers emails.
A bad one costs you money, months of stress, and sometimes your deposit. And because you're usually choosing the property rather than the agent, most renters never look at who they're about to be tied to for a year.
Here's what to check, and the checks that are legally required rather than nice to have.
The short version
- Three things are legally required: redress scheme membership, client money protection, and displaying their fees. Any agent missing one is either ignorant or hoping you are.
- Nearly all tenant fees are banned. If they're charging you to apply, reference or renew, that's unlawful.
- Reviews from actual tenants beat everything else, because agents' own testimonials are chosen by them and landlord reviews measure a different thing entirely.
- More protection is coming. A mandatory ombudsman and a public landlord database start rolling out from late 2026.
The three legal checks, in two minutes
1. Redress scheme membership
Every letting agent in England must belong to a government approved redress scheme, either The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme. It's not optional and it's a criminal offence to trade without it.
This matters because it's your free route to an independent decision when something goes wrong, without going near a court. Our guide to what The Property Ombudsman does explains what they can actually order.
Check it on the scheme's own website rather than trusting a logo in the window. Logos get left up after memberships lapse.
2. Client Money Protection
Also mandatory. CMP insures your money if the agent goes under or someone runs off with it, and without it your rent and deposit are sitting in an account with no safety net.
Agents must display their CMP certificate in the office and on the website. If you can't find it, ask, and treat vagueness as an answer.
3. Fees, displayed
Agents must publish their fees clearly. Since the Tenant Fees Act, almost everything they used to charge tenants is banned. No admin fees, no referencing fees, no inventory fees, no renewal fees, no charge for a tenancy agreement.
What's still allowed is short: rent, a deposit capped at five weeks, a holding deposit capped at one week, changes to the tenancy you request, and genuine costs of your own default such as a lost key. Our guide on the Tenant Fees Act in plain English has the full list.
An agent still charging banned fees in 2026 is telling you something useful about the rest of their practice.
What's coming, and why it's worth knowing now
The Renters' Rights Act rolls out in phases. Phase one landed on 1 May 2026 and abolished Section 21 no-fault eviction. Phase two starts from late 2026 and brings two things that change how you check an agent or landlord:
- A Private Rented Sector Database. Signing up will be mandatory for landlords in England, rolled out gradually by area. For the first time there will be a public record of who is letting property.
- A Landlord Ombudsman. Mandatory to join, free for tenants, with binding decisions. It can compel a landlord to apologise, hand over information, put something right, or pay compensation.
Neither is fully live yet, so don't expect to search the database today. But if an agent or landlord is dismissive about either when you ask, that tells you how they're likely to handle the rest. More in our guide to the Act and its timings.
Green flags
- They answer questions before you've signed anything. How responsiveness looks at the enquiry stage is the best predictor of how it looks when the boiler breaks.
- They volunteer the paperwork. EPC, gas safety certificate, the written information about your tenancy's key terms, deposit scheme details, without you having to chase.
- They're specific about repairs. Who to contact, expected timescales, what counts as an emergency. Vagueness here is the single most reliable warning sign.
- The inventory is thorough and you're invited to comment on it. A one-page inventory suits them, not you.
- Named person, direct contact. A general inbox nobody owns is where problems go to die.
- They know the area properly. Council tax bands, parking schemes, what the transport is actually like.
Red flags
- Pressure to sign or pay today. "There are three other people interested" is sometimes true and always used.
- Reluctance to put anything in writing. Especially about repairs, bills or what's included.
- A holding deposit over one week's rent, or unclear terms about when you get it back.
- Any banned fee, whatever it's called.
- They can't tell you which deposit scheme they use. It must be protected within 30 days and you must be given the prescribed information.
- Viewings where nobody can answer a question about the property's condition or history.
- Existing tenants who look uncomfortable. If you get thirty seconds alone with them, ask how repairs get handled.
Questions worth asking at the viewing
- Who do I contact for a repair, and what's the target response time?
- Which deposit scheme do you use?
- Which redress scheme are you a member of?
- What's the council tax band, and is anything included in the rent?
- Why did the last tenants leave, and how long were they here?
- Does the landlord live nearby, and do they use you for full management or just letting?
That last one matters more than people realise. Let-only means the agent disappears after you move in and the landlord handles everything, which is fine if the landlord is good and a problem if you chose the property because the agent seemed professional.
Question five is the most revealing. A pause before the answer usually means something.
Reviews, and how to read them
Agents' websites carry testimonials they selected. Landlord-facing reviews measure whether the agent gets good rents and low voids, which is not the same as whether they fix your shower.
What you want is tenants describing what happened when something went wrong. Look for specifics rather than tone. "Reported a leak in October, chased four times, fixed in January" tells you more than "terrible service, avoid".
That's the whole reason this site exists. You can look up letting agents on Marks Out Of Tenancy and read reviews written by the people who actually rented through them, scored on the things that matter to a tenant rather than to a landlord.
Check the property and the landlord too, not just the agent. They're three separate things and any of them can be the problem.
If you're already with a bad one
- Put everything in writing from now on, and keep it. Follow up phone calls with an email summarising what was said.
- Complain formally to the agent first. Their complaints procedure is usually on their website, and the redress scheme will expect you to have used it.
- Then go to the redress scheme. Free, independent, and they can order compensation.
- Environmental health for anything about the condition of the property. It costs nothing and carries statutory weight.
- Trading Standards for banned fees, missing CMP or no redress membership.
Our guide on who to complain to sets out the order, and avoiding rental scams is worth reading if anything feels off before money changes hands.
The thing to remember
You're choosing a relationship for a year or more, not just a flat. Twenty minutes of checks before you sign is worth more than any amount of complaining afterwards.
Verify the redress scheme and CMP directly, refuse banned fees, get repair arrangements in writing, and read what previous tenants said. If an agent finds any of that annoying, you've learned what you needed to know.
And when your tenancy ends, whichever way it went, leave a review. It takes a few minutes and it's the only reason the next person gets to make this choice with real information.
This guide covers England and reflects the law as at August 2026, including the Renters' Rights Act phase one in force from 1 May 2026. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate rules and their own agent registration schemes. General information rather than legal advice. Sources: GOV.UK, Guide to the Renters' Rights Act, GOV.UK, implementation roadmap.