HMRC

Over the last month, Managing Director, Jerry Walters, has held regular meetings with the Head of the Policy & Strategy Unit of HMRC with responsibility for Estate Agency Businesses (EAB) in order to discuss latest developments when it comes to all things AML.

Updated guidance from HMRC is due out in the next few weeks and will of course include the aspect of letting agents. Just as a reminder, any letting agent letting a property with a rental of 10,000 Euros per month, or equivalent currency (currently £8,900 pcm), for more than one month is required to undertake CDD in line with the MLR 2017 in respect of the Landlord, Tenant, Guarantor or authorised occupier. The timing and extent of the CDD should be exactly the same as if they were selling the property in question. So for a Landlord, the CDD will include Land Registry, Proof of ID, proof of current home address and PEP / Financial sanction check prior to marketing the property. It will be the same for a tenant but will of course include source of income/ funds that is in line with the rental value of the property concerned and the CDD should be undertaken at the time an offer to rent is accepted but crucially before accepting a deposit from the tenant.

In terms of supervisory visits by HMRC (in line with Regulation 46(2) of MLR 2017), those have now recommenced but have been adapted to the current pandemic. They are no longer undertaken face to face, but are conducted via a 2 – 3 hour conference call in order to discuss the EAB and their overall compliance with the regulations. This is then being followed up with an agent being required to provide a number of selected files to check that the level of CDD is of a satisfactory standard to comply with the regulations. Again, as stressed time and time again it is essential that agents have in place the requisite AML documents namely a comprehensive AML Policy & Procedure manual, Risk Assessment and all staff training is recent and a training log is retained.

September 2020