The short answer
Your tenancy does not end because the agent did. The tenant stays, the rent is still due, and the deposit is still your legal responsibility, even if the agent took it and you never saw it. First find out whether the deposit is protected, and tell the tenant in writing where the rent goes from now on, so no more of it reaches the agent. Then claim back what the agent kept, through its client money protection scheme or, if the business is being wound up, from the liquidator.
Ending an agency contract with an agent that is still trading is a different job, set out in the help page on taking over from a letting agent and the blog guide on leaving one.
When this comes up
Rent stops arriving and nobody answers the phone. An email arrives from an insolvency practitioner. Or the tenant gets in touch because the agent’s office is shut. Whichever it is, the money already lost matters less in the first week than the money that has not been lost yet.
The first days, in order
- Check the deposit. Ask each of the three schemes in England, the Deposit Protection Service, MyDeposits and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, whether it holds a protection for the address, with the tenant’s name and the date the deposit was paid. Ask the tenant for their protection certificate too
- Tell the tenant in writing. The date from which the rent comes to you, the account it goes into, how to report a repair, and an address in England and Wales for notices. Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 section 48 (legislation.gov.uk, read 20 October 2026) treats rent as not due until a landlord has given the tenant that address
- Find out what has happened to the business. Companies House shows whether a company is in liquidation and who is handling it. If nobody is, and the agent has simply vanished with money, report it to the police
- Gather the paperwork. Your agency contract, the agent’s statements, your bank records of what the agent paid you, and the tenancy agreement, gas safety record, EICR, EPC and inventory, from the tenant if the agent cannot provide them
- Work out what you are owed. Each month’s rent the tenant paid the agent and the agent did not pass on, with dates. That figure is your claim
If the deposit was never protected
This is the urgent part. GOV.UK’s “Deposit protection schemes and landlords” (read 20 October 2026) says a deposit must go into a scheme within 30 days of receiving it, by you or your letting agent. Its page on what happens if you do not says a court can order you to repay the deposit or pay it into a scheme, order you to pay the tenant up to 3 times the deposit, and decide the tenant does not have to leave when the tenancy ends.
Housing Act 2004 section 214(4) (legislation.gov.uk, read 20 October 2026) puts that payment of between one and three times the deposit on the landlord. An agent that failed to protect does not take the duty with it when it goes.
- Protect the deposit yourself as soon as you can, even if you have to fund it while you claim the money back
- Give the tenant the prescribed information as soon as the deposit is protected: the scheme and its dispute service, how the deposit is protected, your contact details and the rest. GOV.UK says it is due within 30 days of getting the deposit, so where the agent took it long ago that date has already passed
- Take advice from a solicitor on a deposit that should have been protected long ago, because protecting late does not undo everything
Where the deposit is protected, how safe the money is depends on the kind of scheme. GOV.UK says a custodial scheme holds the deposit itself, while with an insured scheme you or the agent holds the money and pays the scheme to insure it. A deposit in a custodial scheme is still there. With an insured scheme, ask that scheme straight away what happens when the member agent has failed.
Getting the missing rent back
- Client money protection. Under regulation 3 of the Client Money Protection Schemes for Property Agents (Requirement to Belong to a Scheme etc.) Regulations 2019, a property agent in England that holds client money must belong to an approved or designated client money protection scheme. Regulation 4 requires the certificate on display at its offices and on its website, and written notice to every client within 14 days if the membership is revoked (legislation.gov.uk, read 20 October 2026). GOV.UK’s “Protecting clients’ money if you’re a property agent” says these schemes make sure landlords and tenants are compensated if the agent cannot repay their money, for example if it goes into administration. Find the scheme on the agent’s certificate or its fee list, and ask the scheme how to claim
- The liquidator. GOV.UK’s “Register as a creditor in a bankruptcy or liquidation” (read 20 October 2026) says to tell the person handling the case what you are owed, using a Proof of Debt form for more than £1,000, and that payment is not guaranteed
- The redress scheme. An agent doing lettings or property management work in England must belong to a redress scheme (the Redress Schemes for Lettings Agency Work and Property Management Work (Requirement to Belong to a Scheme etc) (England) Order 2014, articles 3 and 5, legislation.gov.uk, read 20 October 2026). It handles complaints about how the agent behaved, which can still matter while the business is being wound up
Section 83 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (legislation.gov.uk, read 20 October 2026) requires an agent’s published fee list to name its client money protection scheme and its redress scheme, so an old copy of the fee list or an archived website page tells you where to go.
What about rent the tenant paid to the agent?
A tenant who paid the agent as agreed was paying your agent. Do not record those months as arrears or chase the tenant for them without legal advice; record them as paid to the agent, and claim the money from the agent’s side.
Taking the let over in LetCompliance
Once the urgent steps are done, the let still needs running. The help page on taking over from a letting agent has the full handover; the parts that matter after a failure are these:
- Record the deposit. If the agent had protected it and you have now protected it yourself, tick Taken over from a letting agent or another scheme and enter the date it was Protected again on; the prescribed information is then timed from that date. If it was never protected, leave the box unticked and enter the real Deposit received on and Protected on dates, so the record shows the late protection instead of hiding it
- Make the Prescribed Information from the deposit record and record the date you gave it
- Ask the tenant to pay by Direct Debit into your own Stripe account, so rent never passes through anyone else again
- Send the tenant their portal link: their rent, repairs with photos and their documents in one place
- Record the months the agent collected, in one go from the tenancy start, with a note that they were paid to the agent, so the rent history is complete. Paid months go into Finance as income, so ask your accountant how rent the agent took and never passed on should be treated for tax
Single, for one property, is £7.99 a month.
Common mistakes
- Assuming the agent protected the deposit because the contract said it would
- Letting another month’s rent go to the agent’s account while you wait for news
- Chasing the tenant for rent they already paid to the agent
- Waiting for the liquidator before claiming from the client money protection scheme
Is my deposit safe if my letting agent goes bust?
In a custodial scheme, the scheme holds it. In an insured scheme, the agent held it, so ask the scheme at once. If it was never protected, the duty and the risk are yours.
Does the tenant have to pay the rent again?
Do not ask them to without legal advice. Rent paid to your agent as agreed is the agent’s to account for.
What is client money protection?
Compulsory cover for agents in England that hold landlords’ or tenants’ money, so a client can claim if the agent loses or misuses it.
Can I manage the property myself after this?
Yes. Many landlords do after an agent fails. The help page on taking over from an agent covers the documents and the deposit.
The honest limits
- This is general information, not legal advice. A solicitor is worth it where the deposit was unprotected or the sums are large
- LetCompliance cannot claim from a scheme or a liquidator for you, and does not hold or protect deposits
- The rent the agent collected is not fetched from the agent; it is recorded from your statements
