Letting agents which rent our property valued at 10,000 euros or more for a minimum of one month, including both residential and commercial property, are now subject to the anti-money laundering regulations.
All new regulations must be complied with from 10 January 2020. Guidance from the Government is expected very soon.
Beneficial Owners rules
There is a new requirement for property auctioneers and sales agents to check beneficial ownership registers before establishing a business relationship with anyone in the ownership and control structure of their customers.
Property professionals must report to Companies House any discrepancies between what they find in their Customer Due Diligence research and what is listed on beneficial ownership registers.
Where the beneficial owner of a company cannot be identified, property agents and auctioneers must take steps to verify the identity of senior managing officials.
Customer risk factors and Enhanced Due Diligence
Property agents and auctioneers must now carry out Enhanced Due Diligence where there is an unusual pattern of transactions, or the transaction has no apparent economic or legal purpose - not just on transactions that are complex or unusually large.
Where there is a business relationship or transaction with a landlord or tenant from a high-risk third country, agents must now also carry out EDD and obtain additional information on:
- The customer and customer’s beneficial owner.
- The intended nature of the business relationship.
- The source of funds and wealth of the customer and of the customer’s beneficial owner.
- The reasons for the transaction.
Property professionals must obtain the approval of senior management for establishing or continuing any business relationship or transaction with a landlord or tenant from a high-risk third country.
Property agents and auctioneers must also conduct enhanced monitoring of the business relationship, by increasing the number of controls applied and selecting patterns of transactions that need further examination.
Electronic ID methods
The regulations state that electronic identification processes are permitted where these are:
- Independent of the person whose identity is being verified
- Secure from fraud or misuse
- Capable of providing an appropriate level of assurance that the person being checked is who they say they are.
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