LATEST: Five letting agents kicked out of private rented sector after failing landlords

Five estate agents have been kicked out of the property industry after failing landlords clients, it has been revealed.
Out of the half-dozen firms, RB Estates in Reading was the worst offendor, The Property Ombudsman (TPO) reveals.

A complaint against them came from a landlord when tenants set up a cannabis farm in their property.

The landlord complained about the quality of the referencing checks conducted by R B Estates (main picture) who classed the tenants as a group of professionals.

TPO found a number of significant concerns with the referencing process and several failings and made an award totalling £5,910 which included the loss of three months’ rent).

Closed down

The award is likely to be too late for the landlord – the agency has closed down.

Other agents stripped of their TPO membership, who therefore cannot carry on trading legally, including Slough firm Kingdom Property Services Ltd, which failed to hand over rent totalling £1,726 and Westminster-based Silverstone Properties London Ltd, which badly failed landlords on many occasions by poorly managing rented homes.

Silverstone traded as a Belvoir branch under the firms franchise model, but this office has now been taken over by the head office.

The other firms are SW London firm George Proctor & Partners, who recommended to a landlord a contractor who turned out to be a cowboy builder, national firm Rentify (which has subsequently closed down) which charged a landlord for work without informing him why.

As part of TPO’s process, notification of these expulsions are shared with all relevant bodies, including both Local and National Trading Standards for further investigation.

The memorandum of understanding between TPO and other redress schemes prevents agents from registering with another scheme until outstanding awards have been paid to consumers.