Customer Due Diligence

For landlords using an agent to let their property then it is the agent’s responsibility to ensure they ‘know their customer’, and therefore should be able to demonstrate Customer Due Diligence

The leading membership body for property agents, Propertymark believes “it is best practice for all letting agents, regardless of whether they fall under the definition of businesses with HMRC for AML supervision to carry out CDD on all their customers”. So even if you do not meet the criteria, it is best practice to:

• take appropriate steps to identify and assess risks of money laundering and terrorist financing
• establish an up-to-date written risk assessment and a written policy on how to manage the risk
• appoint a nominated officer – Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) – who will be responsible for the letting agency complying with the Money Laundering Regulations