New legal obligations for UK letting agents: Prepare for financial sanctions compliance by May 2025
From May 14th 2025, all UK letting agents are required by law to comply with financial sanctions regulations. Unlike the money laundering regulations, this will apply regardless of the amount of rent paid.
Letting agents will need to check tenants and landlords against sanctions lists, and report to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation as soon as practicable if they know or have reasonable cause to suspect that a person is a designated person, or has committed a breach of financial sanctions regulations. These checks will need to be against landlords upon instruction and tenants upon accepted offer. Breaches of financial sanctions may be punishable with 7 years in prison and/or a substantial fine.
We can supply these checks, and also monitor as required.
Don’t get caught out – book an appointment with our experts today, and we can get you ready for May 2025 now.
Comply with AML regulations with our compliance suite
The amount a fraudster has to gain from a single property-related transaction makes the industry a clear target for financial crime, like money laundering.
For this reason, our AML compliance suite has been developed to ensure you can efficiently and effectively verify any potential client you’re about to take on—and continues to monitor them regularly for suspicious financial activity.
Between 2021-2022, 5,085 people were added to the Insurance Fraud Bureau—a 17% increase on figures from the previous year
Our compliance solutions for estate agents can help you to:
- Maintain compliance with industry and AML regulations
- Offer an unbeatable customer onboarding experience
- Reduce tenant risk through rigorous preliminary screening
Streamline onboarding for your property clients
In the digital world we live in now, it’s unsurprising that clients who are asked to present identification in person are abandoning application processes, and opting for those more in keeping with the times and technology we have at our fingertips.
So, we like to make it simple for your clients with our Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance solutions. With the technology we provide, you can efficiently and effectively verify and validate client identity immediately, so you can get down to business quicker.
Our KYC tools can be integrated with your existing management systems and will help you to create a more streamlined customer onboarding experience, while remaining compliant and defending your business against fraudsters.
Manage and mitigate risk with our credit screening process
The property industry is a main target for fraud and financial crime, so ensuring you’re working with legitimate clients is crucial.
Check for suspicious financial activity among potential clients with our credit screening process, available via our adaptable API.
When you use our credit screening technology, you will benefit from immediate notification of adverse data on client credit files. This includes CCJs, IVAs, bankruptcies, and address verification.
Protect your property business with our flexible API
Compliance technology for estate agents. Property regulations can mean tenants, landlords, and letting agents are put through extensive, tedious onboarding processes. Many of which require in-person identification checks.
But with our adaptable API, you can iron out these common creases in the onboarding process and verify and validate client identity within seconds.
You can integrate our API with your existing management systems, and our expert team can help you to decide on the best fitting solution for your individual client touchpoints, while maintaining compliance.
