Licensing
What is client money protection?
Client money protection is a scheme letting agents in England must belong to, protecting rent and deposits held on behalf of landlords and tenants if the agent fails.
It is a membership obligation with a display requirement: agents must be in a scheme and must say so, in their offices and on their website.
It sits alongside redress scheme membership, which is a separate mandatory obligation covering complaints. Agents need both, and the two are frequently confused.
For landlords choosing an agent, both memberships are checkable, and an agent holding neither is operating unlawfully rather than merely informally.
What goes wrong in practice
- Membership held but not displayed as required.
- Confused with redress scheme membership, with only one held.
- Landlords not checking either before handing over rent collection.