As regulation tightens on the residential property industry, there is one requirement that seems to be missed, time and time again by many letting agents operating a property buying service and yet there appears to be very little written about it or discussed.

The problem is that the requirement to register with HMRC is assumed to just apply to Estate Agents, yet this is not the case as it also applies to any company or person, that operates a 'property buying or sourcing' service.

In April this year the HMRC took over the regulation and monitoring of Money laundering requirements on Estate Agents in the UK, something that was previously handled by the OFT (Office of Fair Trading). This means that if a company was previously registered with the OFT, they would be automatically registered with the HMRC and sent the bill for the annual registration fee of £110 and are therefore covered.

However, there was not a requirement for letting agents to register with the OFT, (only estate agents) therefore many have fallen through the loop and remain unaware. In fact, it was only this year the TPO (The Property Ombudsman) launched its first ever code of conduct for buying agents, as the focus previously was all about estate agency and letting agency, with very little about property buying agents or service.