Fact Sheet: Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1992

Landlords who failed to register or obtain the correct licence accounted for almost all of the 3,198 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) issued by Rent Smart Wales in the 12 months to May 2026, highlighting the valuable role agents can play in supporting client compliance. All private landlords renting out domestic property in Wales must register with Rent Smart Wales and either employ a licensed agent or become licensed to manage the property themselves.

The first phase of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 has been in force since 1 May 2026, but local regulation is continuing to develop alongside it. Councils across England are consulting on new selective licensing schemes and planning controls for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), creating further checks, costs, and responsibilities for agents and landlords.

Behavioural research suggests that around 60% of landlords in the private rented sector do not fully understand their responsibilities and often fail to meet basic regulatory requirements as a result. This unintentional non-compliance is driven not by bad intent but by four interconnected behavioural patterns.

The property market remains an attractive target for money laundering because of the value of property assets and the ability to hide ownership through companies, trusts, and overseas structures. An estimated £6.7 billion of UK property was bought with wealth suspected to have come from questionable sources between 2016 and 2022 — yet the National Crime Agency (NCA) reports that the volume of SARs from the property sector remains low.