Sector guide · Estate and letting agents

What an estate or letting agent’s website should show, and how to make it checkable.

What the law says about redress schemes, lettings fees and client money protection, set apart from what our review of eight estate agencies found, with a checklist.

By Stacey Smith··Sources fetched 28 September 2026

A seller or tenant choosing an agent, and an AI assistant answering for them, want to know what the agent charges, what the terms are, and where to go if something goes wrong. This guide sets out what the law and The Property Ombudsman’s code say about those facts, keeps that apart from what we found on agencies’ pages, and ends with a checklist. Selling and letting are treated separately because the rules differ; the lettings rules below are as they apply in England.

Redress: which scheme, and in words

The 2008 and 2014 Orders

Every person who engages in relevant estate agency work on residential property must be a member of an approved redress scheme (Estate Agents (Redress Scheme) Order 2008). A person who engages in lettings agency work in England must be a member of a redress scheme for complaints about that work (2014 Order).

A reader can “check a business is registered” with The Property Ombudsman on its register of businesses, or verify membership of the Property Redress Scheme with its agent finder.

The Property Ombudsman’s code for residential estate agents (binds its members only)

Members “must include TPO’s name and website address on your website”, “must prominently display” its logo on their website(s) (clause 1l), and must keep their in-house complaints procedure “readily available in each office and on your website”.

A logo alone leaves the scheme’s name inside an image. Naming the scheme in a line of text, linked to its register, is our advice for members of either scheme; the Property Redress Scheme’s own membership terms were not among the sources we read.

Fees, and client money protection, for lettings work

Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 83

A letting agent “must publish a list of the fees on the agent’s website (if it has a website)”. Each fee must be described well enough to understand what it covers, with the amount including any tax, or how it is calculated where it cannot be fixed in advance.

For lettings or property management work in England, an agent required to belong to a client money protection scheme must publish, with the list of fees, a statement that it is a member and the name of the scheme; an agent required to belong to a redress scheme must do the same for that scheme.

Client Money Protection Regulations 2019, regulation 4

A property agent who holds client money must belong to an approved or designated scheme (regulation 3) and, under regulation 4, must “publish a copy of the certificate on the agent’s website (if any)”, as well as displaying it at each office in England where it deals with people face to face.

These duties come from lettings and property management work. For selling a home, none of the sources above requires a fee on the website; our review sets out the duties about what a seller must be told in writing before signing. A published selling fee is our advice.

What we checked

In our review of eight estate agencies’ selling pages in Leeds and Manchester, captured on 27 September 2026, we read the page the search returned and a linked selling or fees page. We recorded what the pages showed; we did not check any agency’s scheme membership or compliance.

What our review found

One of the eight stated a fee for selling a home, and one said whether a seller is tied in for a minimum term. None named its redress scheme in words a reader sees: five named The Property Ombudsman only in a logo description, and five linked to a scheme’s home page, none to the agency’s own entry.

Six named client money protection; we recorded its presence, not whether any agency was required to show it. None carried a visible date.

A checklist you can apply

Open your home page, your selling page and, if you let property, your lettings fees page. Items marked “rule” restate a requirement quoted above; items marked “our advice” go further than the rules. The tick boxes are only a reading aid and save nothing.

  • The code requires both on your website, and its logo there too. rule
  • Name it in text, not only in a logo, so a reader and software both see it. our advice
  • Link the name to the scheme’s register or agent finder. our advice
  • Describe each fee, give the amount including tax, and say whether it is per property or per tenant. rule
  • With the fees, state that you belong to a redress scheme and a client money protection scheme where required, and name both. rule
  • If you hold client money for lettings work, publish a copy of the certificate on your website. rule
  • Give the fee or a range, what it includes, any minimum term and how to end the agreement. our advice
  • TPO members: make it readily available on your website. rule
  • Show when it was last checked and who approved it. our advice
Download the review’s 10-question worksheet (CSV)Request a free visibility check

Sources

Each source was fetched on 28 September 2026; the requirements above are taken from these pages as they read that day. Rules change, so check the current version before relying on this guide.

This guide is a content aid, not legal or regulatory advice. It separates what the rules say from what our review found; where it recommends something the rules do not require, it says so. Have the responsible person at your agency approve any change to regulated information before it goes live. Send corrections, with the passage, to hello@answari.co.uk.