Some letting agents are fraudulently taking thousands of pounds from tenants as a holding deposit, not letting them move in and keeping the money, a Newsbeat investigation has found. Trading standards authorities in England said 487 such cases were reported from January 2011 to September 2013. The charity Shelter said the numbers were "just the tip of the iceberg". It says letting agents need much stronger regulation. A Freedom of Information request found that 71 of the 200 trading standards teams in England had received at least one complaint about this issue.
Civil matterThe Trading Standards Institute (TSI) said the way information was recorded meant that the real number of victims could be much higher.

Campbell Robb from Shelter said: "Surveys we have done in the past show a quarter of people who have been ripped off don't bother reporting it, as they know nothing is going to happen." The Freedom of Information request - which asked how many complaints had been seen about letting agents charging holding deposits or other admin fees, but not letting prospective tenants move in and refusing to give them their money back - received 113 responses...........Read more here