This week, 3,000 professional lettings agents across the UK will unite for SAFEagent Awareness Week 15-19 May 2017 – continuing to highlight to consumers the importance of choosing a professional agent who is part of a Client Money Protection (CMP) Scheme run by a regulatory organisation.
For the last six years, SAFEagent has campaigned to protect consumers by ensuring all letting agents holding rent money and deposits must have a CMP Scheme in place. Finally, in March, Government announced that it intends to make Client Money Protection (CMP) mandatory for all letting agents.
While SAFEagent is delighted that the campaign has finally achieved its goal of mandatory CMP, it is not yet law. This still leaves consumers at risk if their chosen agent does not have client money protection.
Unfortunately there are still too many cases of criminal letting agents stealing landlord and tenant cash. This is why agents taking part in SAFEagent Awareness week will be reminding consumers of the importance of using an agent who is part of a regulatory organisation, which provides CMP.
John Midgley, Chair of the SAFEagent Steering Group, says:
“SAFEagents have campaigned hard for consumer protection – and the Government has finally taken on board our calls for all agents to be part of a Client Money Protection Scheme. This is fantastic news, but unfortunately, the law isn’t in place yet.
“Choosing a letting agent without CMP in place therefore remains a massive risk for both landlords and tenants. We’ll continue to campaign, raising awareness among consumers of the importance of only using an agent with CMP.”
Tenants and landlords / consumers should always look for the SAFEagent logo, an easily identifiable consumer mark denoting agents subscribed to a Client Money Protection (CMP) Scheme.