There has been a market failure to educate the consumer in the rental market, warned the new Chief Executive of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, Steve Harriott - who was speaking at the recent Annual Conference of the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA).

Letting agents were challenged by Harriott to take the lead in educating landlords and tenants in a major drive to improve standards across the private rented sector.

“Market forces cannot be relied on to set standards. Only well informed customers can know what they should buy into and so be able to demand high standards of service and protection and understand the dangers posed by cowboy letting agents,” said Mr Harriott.

“With billions of pounds in rents and deposits at stake, it is surprising that tenants still do not know enough to ask if their money is safe. Fully informed tenants would want to know about the property and the rent, the quality of the letting agent and how their rent and deposit would be protected. They would want to see league tables setting out fee levels, service standards and complaint and dispute handling performance.

“Agents are in a position of trust, just like MPs, but rogue letting agents appear to be treated more leniently. The courts are locking up MPs who steal £13,000 but ignoring agents who steal hundreds of thousands of pounds,” concluded Harriott.