Every property listing a Scottish letting agent publishes is a regulated advertisement. The statutory Code of Practice says what it must contain, and one of those requirements — the landlord’s registration number — is missing from a surprising number of agency websites, portal feeds and social posts.
This is a practical account of what the Code requires of lettings advertising and tenant-facing information, where agency websites typically fall short, and how to build the requirements into the site so that nobody has to remember them. It covers lettings in Scotland only; sales work sits under different rules and is not covered here.
The framework, briefly
Letting agency work in Scotland has been a registered activity since the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014 introduced a mandatory register, a “fit and proper” person test, training requirements and a route for landlords and tenants to take complaints about breaches to the First-tier Tribunal.
The Letting Agent Code of Practice (Scotland) Regulations 2016 set the standards, and came into force on 31 January 2018. The consequences of being outside the regime are not administrative. The Scottish Government states: “It is a criminal offence to do letting agency work if you are not on the register. If you’re convicted, you could face a fine of up to £50,000, up to 6 months imprisonment or both.”
Most agencies are registered and know it. The gaps are in the detail of what their advertising says.
What every property advert must carry
Section 4 of the Code covers marketing and advertising. Two paragraphs matter most for a website:
“You must take all reasonable steps to ensure your letting agent registration number is included in all property advertisements or communications.”
Paragraph 41
“…you must include a landlord’s registration number (or clearly state ‘landlord registration pending’) and the energy performance indicator from the property’s energy performance certificate (EPC) in your property advertisements and remove lettings boards within 14 days of the property being let.”
So a compliant listing carries three identifiers, not one:
- Your letting agent registration number — in all property advertisements or communications, which is broader than listings.
- The landlord’s registration number — or the words “landlord registration pending”.
- The EPC energy performance indicator — the rating from the certificate, on the advert itself.
Paragraph 38 sets the general standard alongside them: advertising “must be clear, accurate and not knowingly or negligently misleading”. Paragraph 39 requires the landlord’s permission to advertise at all.
Where websites usually fail
The agency number tends to be in the footer, which is a reasonable start. The failures are nearly always per-property, and they come from how listings get onto a site rather than from anyone deciding to ignore the rule:
- The listing template has no field for it. If the property page was designed around photos, rent and bedrooms, there is nowhere for the landlord’s number to go, so it does not go anywhere.
- The feed drops it. Listings pulled from a CRM or pushed to portals only carry the fields both ends agree on. An identifier that is not mapped simply disappears between systems.
- The EPC rating lives in a PDF. The certificate is uploaded; the rating never makes it into the text of the advert.
- “Pending” never gets updated. A listing goes live marked pending, registration comes through, and nobody goes back.
- Social posts are forgotten. A “just listed” post is a property advertisement. It usually carries a photo and a price and nothing else.
- Let properties stay up. The Code gives lettings boards 14 days after a property is let. A website listing marked “let agreed” for three months is not a board, but it is still an advertisement that is no longer accurate.
Build it in rather than remember it
The reliable fix is structural. If the registration numbers and the EPC rating are required fields on the property record, a listing without them cannot be published — to the website, to a feed or anywhere else — and the question of whether someone remembered stops arising.
In practice that means three things on the website side:
- One source of truth. The property record holds the landlord registration status, the EPC rating and the agent’s number once, and every output reads from it.
- A publish check. Missing identifier, no publication. “Pending” is a permitted state, but a visible one that someone is prompted to resolve.
- Automatic removal. When a property is let, the listing comes down on a rule rather than when somebody notices.
Our estate and letting agents page covers the wider website — the different ways landlords and tenants arrive, and how enquiries should be routed. Branvia is the agency system we build for the operational side.
What the listing page has to tell a prospective tenant
The Code also sets out what prospective tenants must be told. Paragraph 43 requires “all relevant information about renting the property – for example, the length and type of tenancy; the rent; the deposit; other financial obligations such as council tax; any guarantor requirements and what pre-tenancy checks will be required at the outset”.
That list is close to a specification for a good listing page, and most of it belongs there rather than in a follow-up email:
- Tenancy type and length.
- Rent, and the deposit amount.
- Council tax band and any other ongoing costs the tenant carries.
- Whether a guarantor is needed.
- What checks happen before a tenancy is granted.
- How to apply and how viewings work — paragraph 44.
Paragraph 45 adds that you “must make prospective tenants aware of the Code and give them a copy on request”, which may be done electronically. A link on the lettings pages handles that permanently. Paragraph 46 closes the loop: you must not “knowingly omit relevant information or evade questions”.
There is a commercial argument here as well as a regulatory one. Every one of those items is a question an applicant will otherwise ask by phone or email, usually more than once.
Fees, and a marketing claim to be careful with
Paragraph 48 of the Code points agents to section 82 of the Rent (Scotland) Act 1984, “which prohibits any person, as a condition of the grant, renewal or continuance of an assured or short assured tenancy, from requiring a tenant or prospective tenant to pay any charges except rent and a refundable deposit of no more than two months’ rent”. Paragraph 49 adds that agents “must not, as a condition of granting the tenancy, require tenants to use a third-party service that charges them a fee”.
That has an implication for how lettings pages are written. Many agencies advertise “no tenant fees” prominently, as though it were a feature of their service. In Scotland it is the law for every agent.
Schedule 20 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 lists commercial practices treated as unfair in all circumstances. Paragraph 11 is: “Presenting rights given to consumers by law as a distinctive feature of the trader’s offer.”
We are not lawyers, and whether a particular page crosses that line is a question for yours. But the safer construction costs nothing: state the position as what it is. “Letting agents in Scotland cannot charge tenants fees beyond rent and a refundable deposit” is accurate, informative and reassuring, and it does not imply your competitors do otherwise.
The landlord-facing side
Landlords choosing an agent look for different evidence, and some of it is directly checkable.
- The registration number, where they can find it. The Scottish Letting Agent Register is publicly searchable. A landlord comparing agencies can verify a number in a minute, and an agency that makes that easy looks like one with nothing to hide.
- Client money protection and professional indemnity. The Code requires agents’ terms of business with landlords to confirm that they hold client money protection insurance and professional indemnity insurance, or equivalent protection, with details available on request. If you hold them, saying so on the landlord pages answers a question before it is asked.
- How complaints are handled. The Code expects a written complaints procedure and explains that unresolved complaints can go to the First-tier Tribunal. A landlord reading that you have a clear process is reading about how you behave when something goes wrong.
What we would not put on your site
- A listing without the three identifiers, however urgent the instruction.
- “No tenant fees” as a selling point when it is a legal requirement for every agent.
- Insurance or accreditation claims you cannot evidence. Client money protection, indemnity cover and membership bodies are all checkable.
- Registration numbers typed into page copy by hand. They belong in the property record, where a change updates everywhere at once.
- Let properties left up as proof of activity. If you want to show track record, a separate “recently let” area labelled as such is honest; a listing that looks available is not.
Sources and method
- The Letting Agent Code of Practice (Scotland) Regulations 2016, Schedule — paragraphs 38 to 49 and the terms-of-business, complaints and client money provisions quoted above.
- Regulation 1 — commencement on 31 January 2018.
- Letting agent registration, mygov.scot — the criminal offence and penalties.
- Scottish Letting Agent Register search.
- Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20 — paragraph 11.
What this post does not do. It is not legal advice, and it is not a complete statement of the Code, which runs to more than a hundred paragraphs covering management, deposits, repairs and ending tenancies. It covers lettings in Scotland only. It does not assess whether any particular wording breaches consumer law — that is a question for a solicitor. The one interface shown is from our own Branvia demonstration using sample data, and the hold it displays is stricter than the Code requires, as the caption says. Regulations are amended; check the linked sources rather than relying on this page.
Questions letting agents ask us
Does the registration number need to be on every page of the website?
Paragraph 40 refers to “all property advertisements or communications”. A site-wide footer covers general pages reasonably; each property advertisement should carry it too, and a template field makes that automatic.
Can we advertise before the landlord is registered?
The Code allows the advert to “clearly state ‘landlord registration pending’”. Some agencies choose not to market until registration is confirmed, which is a policy decision rather than a requirement.
Where does the EPC rating need to appear?
Paragraph 41 says the energy performance indicator must be in the property advertisement. A downloadable certificate on its own does not put the rating in the advert.
Do social media posts count?
A post promoting a specific property to rent is a property advertisement, so the same identifiers apply. The limited space is a reason to template them, not a reason to leave them out.
Our portal feed strips fields. Is that our problem?
The Code asks you to take “all reasonable steps”. Checking what actually reaches each portal, and fixing the mapping where fields are dropped, is the kind of step that phrase describes.
Is this a new website?
Often not. If listings come from a property system, it is usually a field and a template change. It becomes a rebuild question when listings are typed into pages by hand and nothing enforces what they contain.
Would your listings pass the three-identifier check?
Send us a link to a current listing and the portal it feeds. We will tell you what is missing, where it is being lost, and whether that is a template fix or a bigger job.