New Sanction Rules for Letting Agents

Letting agency businesses across the UK need to work to a new sanctions reporting framework from today, 14 May 2025, and Propertymark has stressed that it is vital that every agent understands the rules and adjusts working practices and systems accordingly.

Under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018, the UK Government introduced a new regime of issuing financial sanctions following the UK’s departure from the European Union. Under the Act, businesses specified in the Act have to report to the Office for Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) if they suspect they are engaging with a client who is under financial sanctions. Previously, only estate agents were required to complete sanctions checks and report to the OFSI. This legal duty will now extend to all letting agents.

Letting agents will be legally required to check the OFSI list of sanctioned individuals and organisations throughout their work. This includes being instructed by prospective landlords or prospective tenants to finalise agreements.

Under the obligations, letting agents are required to report to OFSI as soon as practicable if they know or have reasonable cause to suspect their client is sanctioned, or has breached financial sanctions regulations.

What’s key, and an area that has caused confusion, is that the reporting obligations apply in relation to letting agency work irrespective of the value of any rental agreement. This is in contrast to the definition of letting agency work under the Money Laundering Regulations under which letting agency work relates to lets with a rent of 10,000 euros or more.

Under the new sanctions reporting regime, OFSI requires letting agents to check landlords in response to instructions received from the landlord and if they become suspicious of the landlord during the carrying out of any works following the instructions. When receiving instructions from the landlord, letting agents are only expected to carry out checks on tenants when the landlord and tenant are in the process of signing the tenancy agreement. This means letting agents are not expected to check all tenants, only those who are expected to live at the property.

When taking instructions from tenants to seek potential property, letting agents are only expected to check both the tenant and the landlord when both parties are in the course of signing a tenancy agreement.

Through Propertymark’s network of members, some confusion has been highlighted around the rules and the industry body has produced resources accordingly to help agents navigate the requirements.

EAN Breaking News

Breaking News from the team at Estate Agent Networking. Have a new story to share with us? Then please get in contact today! When and where we can we will refer to third party websites with a 'live link back' where news was released first.

You May Also Enjoy

Estate Agent Talk

How to Sell Your House Fast in Birmingham, UK: A Complete Guide

Why Homeowners in Birmingham May Need a Quick Sale Life often throws unexpected challenges our way. Many owners in Birmingham want to sell their house rapidly. Birmingham comes up for one of a kind reasons. Some are probably relocating for work and need to move fast, while others are going through economic pressures or coping…
Read More
Breaking News

Latest HMRC property transactions report

Headline statistics from the latest transactions data include: The provisional seasonally adjusted estimate of the number of UK residential transactions in August 2025 is 93,630, 2% higher than August 2024 and 2% lower than July 2025 The provisional non-seasonally adjusted estimate of the number of UK residential transactions in August 2025 is 103,610, 1% lower…
Read More
Breaking News

Landlords Not Leaving, But Thinking Differently About The Future

New research from LRG reveals a rental sector in transition. In the face of economic pressures, regulatory change and shifting tenant expectations, landlords are adapting. Most are choosing to hold, consolidate or reinvest, with long-term sustainability now taking priority over short-term expansion. The most recent Lettings Report shows that the majority of landlords (60%) intend…
Read More
Breaking News

Property expert on whether interest rates should decline again in 2025

The average two-year mortgage rate is at a three-year low at 4.99%, the first time below 5% since the Liz Truss mini-budget, according to Moneyfacts. However, the question is, will interest rates go down? Mortgage Advisor, John Morris from Pure Property Finance discusses whether this may or may not be the case for the remainder…
Read More
bank of england interest rate
Breaking News

Bank of England – Mortgage approvals down in August

The latest figures show that: – Mortgage approvals on house purchases for August sat at 64,680 down (-0.7%) from 65,161 in July. This brings three consecutive months of growth to a stop. Approvals are also down slightly (-0.5%) when compared to the 64,983 seen in August 2024. This reflects a quieter summer period, while there…
Read More
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 29/09/25

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.   AI platform looks to transforms London’s £1 million+ market with instant precision search, deep property research, and live market dashboards HomeHapp AI has launched a ‘Prime Property Intelligence Engine’, a unified platform combining comprehensive property discovery, instant research, and AI-powered agency tools tailored for London’s…
Read More