Landlords are advised to check whether their letting agent is a member of a recognised professional body and similarly tenants ought to check with their landlords that, where necessary, suitable alternative arrangements have been made to protect rent deposits. The TDS has suggested that letting agents ought to be members of one of the following:

*Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA)
*The National Approved Lettings Scheme (NALS)
*National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA)
*Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

Alternatively deposits can be protected by using of the Government authorised deposit protection schemes, being either
*Tenancy Deposit Solutions (mydeposits.com) or
*The Deposit Protection Service

The TDS intends in the near future to write to those of its members who are unregulated informing them of this action as well as to tenants whose tenancy is shown to have been arranged via unregulated agents with advice as to action they should take. We recommend however that if you are a landlord of residential property who uses a letting agent that you check whether they are a member of one of the recognised bodies listed above. Equally if you are a tenant of a property where your landlord has used a letting agent, you would be as well to check out the position as soon as possible, as it could take the TDS some time to contact you personally.