PRESS RELEASE

David Cox, Chief Executive, ARLA Propertymark comments on Which?’s findings that agents could be breaching consumer law with unfair practices:

“There is currently no legal requirement in England or Wales to have a tenancy agreement, and as legal statute overrides contract, any unreasonable terms in a contract would be unenforceable in a court of law. As such, we would question the suggestion that agents are breaching consumer protection law. We have long been advocating for a legal requirement to have a written tenancy agreement, as they have in Scotland, to avoid many of the misunderstandings cited in this research. Which? implies that even MHCLG’s template tenancy agreement is in breach of their best practice; this demonstrates just how complex the issue around terms and conditions can be.”