This Primary Authority Advice has been produced by Warwickshire County Council Trading Standards Service, in partnership with The Property Ombudsman and Propertymark, for use by member businesses as an aid to complying with the law. If you follow this advice correctly, your local Trading Standards Service should respect this and not ask you to comply with the law in a different way. If you are contacted by a local authority enforcement body, please inform them that you are a member of the scheme.
Assured advice issued:
Section 83 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires letting agents to display their fees for tenants (where permitted) and landlords, and gives details of how and where this information should be given (This paragraph does not form part of the Assured Advice).
Given the importance of these requirements, it would appear that details of landlord and tenant fees would constitute ‘material information’ for the purposes of the Consumer Protection Regulations, and so failure to give it fully and comprehensively may also constitute a ‘misleading omission’ for the purposes of Regulation 6. This would apply to clients who are consumers or consumer landlords.
In relation to commercial clients, if the fee information is presented in a misleading manner, an offence of publishing misleading advertising, contrary to Regulation 6 of the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing regulations 2008 (as amended), may be committed.
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Download the full version of this advice to see what legislation and guidance Warwickshire County Council Trading Standards Service considered before providing this advice.
