Medway Council has confirmed a £15,000 civil penalty against Homelet PMS Ltd after finding the letting agent handled client money without belonging to an approved protection scheme.
The case was published by the council on Monday and closes a long enforcement trail that started with a routine inspection in January 2023. Officers said the business was warned, given time to comply and then pursued through formal notices before the penalty was finally paid in full in March 2026.
For landlords, the latest action is a reminder that client money protection is not a back-office technicality. If an agent is holding rent, deposits or maintenance funds without valid cover, the landlord can be left exposed when something goes wrong – especially as more owners rely on third parties to handle compliance and tenant-facing admin.
Medway says agent held client money without protection
According to Landlord Knowledge’s report on more landlords moving to agents under compliance pressure, professional management is becoming more common as rules tighten. Medway’s case shows why landlords still need to check the legal basics before handing over control of rent collection and property payments.
The council said Homelet PMS Ltd was not a member of a Client Money Protection (CMP) scheme when it was inspected in January 2023. An individual also provided evidence that the company was holding money while operating without that cover in place.
Client money protection is designed to cover rent collected from tenants, tenancy deposits, holding deposits and funds held for maintenance or management. In practice, that means landlords are relying on it whenever an agent sits between them and the cashflow from a property.
Medway said officers first offered advice and guidance to help the firm comply. When that did not resolve the issue, the council issued a formal warning in May 2024, followed by a Notice of Intent for a £15,000 penalty in September 2024. A Final Notice followed in November 2024, with civil debt recovery started after the fine remained unpaid.
The authority said the outstanding amount was eventually paid in full in March 2026, before further action was needed.
Why the timing matters for landlords
The timing matters because landlords are leaning more heavily on agents just as regulatory pressure is rising. Landlords who assume an established local firm has the right protections in place may not be checking membership of an approved scheme as closely as they should.
This follows Landlord Knowledge’s earlier coverage of rule-breaking by letting agents, which highlighted how compliance failures by intermediaries can still land landlords and tenants in expensive disputes. Medway’s enforcement action adds a hard example of a council using existing powers rather than waiting for wider reforms.
Landlords can check whether an agent belongs to a recognised CMP scheme before signing terms of business or moving rent collection. Medway pointed landlords and tenants to approved providers and online checkers in its announcement. The council’s published notice on the Homelet PMS case sets out the enforcement timeline and the legal basis for the penalty.
Cllr Alex Paterson, portfolio holder for Community Safety, Highways and Enforcement at Medway Council, said the rules exist to protect tenants and landlords if something goes wrong, and added that the case should warn other businesses that the council will act when legal duties are ignored.
What this means for landlords
- If you use a managing agent: check today that it belongs to an approved client money protection scheme and keep a record of that check.
- Before switching agent: ask who holds rent, deposits and maintenance floats, and under which protection scheme they sit.
- Watch for: any agent that is vague about CMP membership, redress membership or where landlord funds are ringfenced.
- On renewals: review terms of business rather than assuming a long-running agency relationship still meets current rules.
- Bottom line: outsourcing management does not remove a landlord’s need to do basic due diligence on who is handling the money.
Editor’s view
This is the kind of enforcement story landlords should not shrug off as an agent-only problem. As compliance gets harder, more owners will outsource – and that makes basic checks on client money protection more important, not less.
Author: Editorial Team – UK landlord & buy-to-let news, policy, and finance
Published: 23 June 2026
Sources: Medway Council, Client Money Protection Schemes for Property Agents Regulations 2019
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