Sadly, Investors Chronicle has been bombarded with examples like this since we asked landlord readers to tell us about their experiences with letting agents. What's more, industry bodies attest that levels of complaints about letting agents have dramatically increased in the last year. The Association of Residential Lettings Agents (Arla) tells us that letting agency fraud has reached an all-time high, and industry watchdog the Property Ombudsman reports a 27 per cent rise in complaints against letting agents in the last quarter alone.
However, Housing Minister Grant Shapps has controversially reversed plans to regulate the residential letting industry, playing into the hands of fraudsters who are targeting unwary "reluctant landlords" and waves of "forced renters" who cannot afford to buy a property. He thinks the industry can regulate itself – but an estimated 40 per cent of all letting agents are totally unregulated. The rise of letting property on the internet makes it even easier for fraud and bad practice to perpetuate. And as our case studies attest, there are serious financial consequences for property investors when things go wrong.
