AUTUMN 2023 ROUND-UP Rooting out rogue agents Letting agents in the West Midlands could face fines of up to 30,000 if an upcoming compliance campaign finds that they are not protecting tenants and landlords money or adhering to other legal requirements. ROUND-UP The Central England Trading Standards Authorities (CEnTSA) group has successfully bid for funding to carry out a project to check the compliance of letting agents in the region. The project is being supported by the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team (NTSELAT) and will involve CEnTSA working with housing officers in their respective local authority areas. Letting agents must belong to an approved Client Money Protection (CMP) scheme to ensure tenant and/or landlord money is protected should the business fail and they must tell tenants who they are registered with. They are also required to belong to an approved redress scheme, and to display their CMP certificate and other important information on their websites and in their offices. A similar compliance project in London, in 2020, found hundreds of non-compliant letting agents, with significant non-compliances attracting fines of up to 30,000. Lettings agents in the West Midlands were given advance notice of the CEnTSA project, with publicity in summer 2022 giving them the chance to check that they are taking the steps necessary to be compliant. Significant work has also been done by NTSLEAT with agents professional bodies. West Midlands letting agents are handling huge amounts of tenants and landlords money every year, so its vital that this is protected in the event of business failure, said Simon Wilkes, chair of CEnTSA and head of Worcestershire Regulatory Services. Tenants are often some of the most vulnerable people in our communities and it is important that the business sector recognises this, and acts accordingly. Many businesses will already have these protections in place, and those who are unsure should use this opportunity to check that they are doing what is necessary. This regional operation will enable us to step up our efforts to identify the real rogues in this market. James Munro, head of NTSLEAT, added: The intelligence gathered from this campaign will be used to support local authority investigations across the country, which will help protect consumers, raise compliance and boost consumer confidence. If you are aware of a letting agent that is failing to comply with the law, report this to your local trading standards service via the Citizens Advice Consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133. Credit: Martin Harland, Trading Standards officer Image: iStock.com / AlessandroPhoto Business Safety Week The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) is running Business Safety Week from 11-17 September, to help small and medium-sized firms reduce their risk of fire and comply with relevant laws. For details of the fire-safety advice, guidance, training and support available to your business, visit the West Midlands Fire Service website. Credit: Daniel Hodgkins, watch commander, West Midlands Fire Service Beware banking scam Businesses should be alert to a new banking telephone scam where criminals claiming to be a member of bank staff indicate that suspicious transactions have appeared on the companys account. ROUND-UP They will claim to be calling to make sure any fraudulent transactions do not go through. Criminals can make the call appear to be coming from a familiar bank telephone number, so it looks genuine on your incoming caller ID. If they have previously obtained card details from a business, another tactic is to submit an online transaction for example, ordering a takeaway pizza to a different address knowing that the bank will decline it. This will trigger a declined card transaction text from the bank to the business and criminals then claim to be the bank following up on the message about the attempted card fraud. l When it comes to cyber criminals, Image: iStock.com / Thai Liang Lim theres nothing small about small businesses. If youre open for business online, you could be open to cyber attacks. For more information on how to protect your business, visit The Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands. Anonymous Hotline For further information, please contact your local Trading Standards Service For up-to-date news stories and information, follow us on 0300 303 2636 Is your sector being undermined by unscrupulous traders operating outside the law? Report them via Trading Standards Anonymous Hotline or online and help level the playing field for honest businesses.