UK Landlord Forum / Life

Wondering if anyone else here is in the same situation.

I let my property 12 years ago on a deal that included an annual payment of a percentage of the rental to the estate agent on annual contract renewal. (This looks foolish now, but I'd had two very short tenancies and I felt that if the agent was incentivised to find a long-term tenant, we would both benefit. They don't now do much for the money except give me an updated rent estimate and issue an invoice, but the tenant that they found is great so I just shrug and pay.)

On 14 May 2025, anti money-laundering regulations were updated to increase the checks needed on both landlord and tenant identity. Good, we should catch more criminals.

However, my agency has responded by insisting not only that I provide proof of address and id (which is fair) but that they are legally obliged to use a third-party service to carry out the AML checks, and that I am obliged to pay for it (£180 for each of us) even though nothing in our original agreement allows them to levy additional charges.

Before I seek legal advice and refer them to Arkell vs Pressdram, is anyone else encountering this behaviour? The fact that I can find nothing in this group suggests that my agent is going out on a bit of a limb.

The agent is not (as far as I know) required to use a third party to carry out the checks. But they may not be competent to carry them out (I wouldn't be) and/or may have decided to outsource the service to someone else - like they presumably do for credit checking.

They're about to lose the annual renewals because after next May annual contracts are a thing of the past, so maybe it's going to work out to be the last thing you pay them.

The agent I use for finding tenants has charged me just £35 for this check.The company they use contacted agents saying this was a great new way to increase profits,and it sounds like yours have really taken this idea on board!