Many times I get asked, how can I tell if a letting agent is good or bad? And this is a very valid question, the lettings market is unregulated and this means that absolutely anyone can trade as a letting agent without any education, backing or knowledge, which is frightening, given that an average sized letting agent will have over £4m pounds going through their accounts in any one year! You can really see why it is so attractive to the 'unsavoury characters' out there…so what should you be looking for?

Fortunately, there are some signs to look for when choosing an agent to look after your most valuable asset. Here are my top 10:

1) Members of a regulatory body such as ARLA, RICS or NAEA.
The easiest and first port of call would be to look for an accreditation from a regulatory body, as this means they will have done the checking for you, but please be aware that all accreditations are NOT the same. The most rigorous of checks will be through organisations such as ARLA (the Association of Residential Letting Agents) or RICS (the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) who are both industry leaders and operate a very strict code of conduct and disciplinary procedure. Such organisations will require at least one director or principal to be qualified, for there to be separate client accounts for client funds and insist on a chartered accountant to submit returns to them annually (or more frequent for newer members) as well as CMP or client money protection held.