Letting agent redress schemes: complaints, escalation and the ombudsman

What is a property redress scheme?

A redress scheme is an independent service that resolves complaints about its member agents, free of charge to the person complaining. It can direct an agent to apologise, take action or pay compensation. It isn’t a court and it isn’t a regulator: it can’t fine an agent or bring a prosecution.

The requirement to belong comes from the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, which let the government require people doing lettings agency work and property management work to join a scheme. The Redress Schemes for Lettings Agency Work and Property Management Work (Requirement to Belong to a Scheme etc.) (England) Order 2014 did that, from 1 October 2014.

A scheme can’t fine you, but it can expel a member who won’t comply with its decisions. Because membership is a legal requirement, an expelled agent can’t lawfully carry on lettings or property management work until it joins another scheme, and the two schemes share information about expelled agents.

Who must belong to one?

Anyone in England who does lettings agency work or property management work on residential property, as a business, must belong to an approved scheme. That includes high-street and online agents, property managers acting for landlords, and many managing agents of leasehold blocks.

• Lettings agency work is, broadly, finding tenants for landlords or properties for tenants, in the course of a business. Article 3 of the Order requires membership.
• Property management work is arranging services, repairs, maintenance, improvements or insurance, or otherwise managing premises, for a client in the course of a business, where the premises include a home let under a “relevant tenancy”. That covers assured and regulated tenancies and many long leases, so it can include block management. Article 5 requires membership.
• Some work is excluded. Article 4 excludes, for example, lets arranged by employers for their employees, and work by educational institutions and by solicitors and other authorised legal professionals. Article 6 excludes, among others, commonhold land, some student and refuge accommodation, local authorities, receivers and right-to-manage companies. If you think one applies, read the Order itself.

Enforcement. District and London borough councils enforce the requirement. A council can impose a penalty of up to £5,000. It must first send a notice of intent, and allow 28 days for representations, before a final notice. The agent can appeal a final notice to the First-tier Tribunal.

Telling people which scheme you belong to. Under section 83 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, a letting agent that has to belong to a scheme must say so, and give the scheme’s name, alongside its list of fees: in each office where it deals with clients face to face, and on its website.

Landlords who manage their own properties don’t currently have to join TPO or the PRS. That is changing: the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 provides for a landlord redress scheme, and the government’s implementation roadmap puts mandatory membership in 2028. See the new landlord ombudsman below.

The two approved schemes

The Property Ombudsman (TPO)

TPO covers letting agents, estate agents and other property businesses. Members agree to follow its codes of practice. For lettings in England that is the Code of Practice for Residential Letting Agents (England), effective from 1 May 2026, which sets out both legal obligations and best practice. TPO considers complaints against the code under its terms of reference.

The Property Redress Scheme (PRS)

The PRS, now trading as Property Redress, is run by HF Resolution Ltd. Members agree to its terms of reference, and complaints go through its Conditions of Resolution (5th edition, from 1 June 2024). Lettings members are expected to follow the Private Rented Sector Code of Practice and the CMA’s guidance for lettings professionals. The PRS publishes a model internal complaints process that members can use as their own.

Not the Housing Ombudsman. The Housing Ombudsman deals mainly with social housing landlords, and its Complaint Handling Code is written for them. Private letting agents belong to TPO or the PRS.

TPO and the PRS compared

The two schemes work in similar ways. The differences that matter day to day are in the timescales and the stages after a complaint is accepted.

From TPO’s England lettings code and terms of reference, and the PRS Conditions of Resolution, as published on 6 October 2026. The schemes update these documents; check your scheme’s current version.

Your in-house complaints procedure

Both schemes expect you to have a written complaints procedure, give it to complainants, and follow it. TPO’s code makes the content and timescales mandatory for its members.

Under TPO’s England lettings code (section 19), your procedure must:

• be in writing, explain how to complain to you and to the Ombudsman, and be available in each office and on your website;
• record every complaint, spoken or written, at the time it’s made;
• deal with a complainant’s properly appointed representative;
• acknowledge written complaints in writing within 3 working days, investigate promptly, and send a formal written outcome within 15 working days of receiving the complaint, handled by a senior person or a designated complaint handler who wasn’t directly involved;
• offer a separate review by someone not directly involved, with the review sent within 15 working days;
• end with a written statement of your final view, including any offer, telling the complainant how to refer to the Ombudsman and that they must do so within 12 months.

If a timescale has to slip in an exceptional case, the code expects you to keep the complainant informed and explain why. You also mustn’t pressure anyone into dropping a complaint, or suggest they must pay an outstanding fee before the Ombudsman will look at it.

The PRS terms ask lettings members to give consumers a copy of their internal procedure (or use the PRS model), and to tell them how to complain to the PRS at the point a formal complaint is received.

Our complaints procedure template puts these requirements into a procedure you can adapt.

How a complaint progresses

Taking TPO’s timescales as the example, a complaint that runs its full course looks like this:

1. Day 0The complaint arrives, by email, letter, portal or phone. Record it the same day, whatever form it takes.
2. Within 3 working daysAcknowledge it in writing: who is handling it and when they’ll respond.
3. Within 15 working daysSend your formal written outcome, answering each point, with any offer.
4. If they’re still unhappyA review by someone not involved, sent within a further 15 working days.
5. Final viewpointYour final view, the offer if any, how to refer to the scheme, and the 12-month limit.
6. After the final viewpoint, or 8 weeksThe complainant can refer the complaint to your scheme.

Eight weeks is the outer limit, not a target. A procedure run to the code’s timescales should reach a final view well inside it.

Complaint timeframes at a glance

The records to keep

A scheme decides on the evidence both sides send it, so the strength of your position is usually the strength of your file. TPO’s code requires members to keep clear and full written records of their dealings with landlords and tenants for at least six years, and to produce them when the Ombudsman asks.

For each complaint, keep:

• the complaint as received, and the date it arrived;
• your acknowledgement, outcome, any review and the final viewpoint letter, with the dates sent;
• notes of phone calls and meetings, made at the time;
• the records each issue turns on, such as repair reports and contractor visits, safety certificates, deposit protection paperwork, fee schedules and the tenancy agreement;
• your instructions from the landlord and what you told them, where the landlord’s decisions are part of the complaint.

Our records checklist sets out what to pull for each common type of complaint.

What happens when a complaint reaches a scheme

Both schemes first check that the complaint is one they can take: that the agent is a member, the in-house process has been used or eight weeks have passed, and it’s in time.

At The Property Ombudsman

TPO’s consumer guide describes evaluation, then an attempt at early resolution with the business, then adjudication. The adjudicator issues a proposed decision; either side can ask for a review if there’s been a fundamental mistake or there is new evidence. The decision becomes final if both sides agree with it. If the complainant rejects it, any award lapses and they keep the option of going to court. TPO aims to decide within three months of having all the information it needs, unless the case is complex.

At the Property Redress Scheme

Under the PRS Conditions of Resolution, a case assessor contacts both sides, normally within the first five working days. The member then has up to ten working days to send its response and evidence. The assessor tries for an early resolution. If that fails, a case officer issues a proposed decision, aiming to do so within 20 working days. Either side has ten working days to accept it or ask for a review on grounds of an error of fact, law or administration. A final decision follows, and becomes binding on the member if the complainant accepts it.

What the schemes won’t usually decide

Matters that belong to a court, or that a court or another dispute service is already dealing with; claims that need a legal ruling or sanction only a court can give; and allegations of crime or fraud, which go to the police or trading standards. The PRS also lists disputes better handled by a tenancy deposit protection scheme. Deposit deductions usually go to the deposit scheme’s own dispute service.

What a scheme looks at in your handling

Schemes decide what’s fair in the circumstances, measured against the code you signed up to as well as the law. TPO’s code notes that TPO doesn’t decide whether legislation has been breached; that’s for the courts and enforcement authorities. In practice, a complaint file is read for:

• whether every point the complainant raised got an answer;
• whether the timescales in your own procedure were met, and the complainant kept informed when they weren’t;
• whether what you said is backed by records made at the time;
• whether any legal statements in your reply are accurate;
• whether the final response explained how to escalate;
• whether you put things right where you fell short, and whether any offer was reasonable.

Most of that is settled before a scheme is involved. A full, prompt, evidenced final response makes a referral less likely, and makes the file easier to defend if one comes. That is the part of the process Casebriar helps with: it separates a complaint into its issues, checks the legal claims it makes against legislation.gov.uk, and lists the records each issue needs, while the decisions stay with you.

The new landlord ombudsman

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 provides for a redress scheme that private landlords in England will have to join, separate from the agent schemes. The government’s roadmap, published on 13 November 2025, puts mandatory landlord membership in 2028.

It won’t replace TPO or the PRS for agents. Where an agent manages a property, a tenant’s complaint may involve the agent’s conduct, the landlord’s decisions, or both. A clear record of what the landlord instructed and what you did will matter more once both routes exist. We’ll update this section as the scheme is designated and its rules are published.

Questions agents ask