Q: I own a flat in the UK and work abroad. I am having a tough time dealing with a high street letting agency in London that I contracted to let and manage the flat before I left England. Although the tenants have paid their rent on time, the agents have not paid the rent for more than six months, in clear breach of our agreement. I have discovered that the owners of this agency have been misusing the money due to landlords. The amount owed comes to many thousands of pounds and appears to be fraud on a massive scale. What can I do?

A: All agents, including letting agents, owe basic legal duties to their clients to look after their money. These “fiduciary” duties require letting agents to account for any rent received and to hand it over on request. There will usually be similar obligations in the written agreement you entered into with the agent before you left England.

If the agent fails to pay, there are a number of options. If you do not know how much rent the tenants have paid, you can ask the courts to order that an account should be drawn up and any money due to you paid over. If you do know how much rent has been paid, you can threaten to wind up or bankrupt the agent or make a claim for money “had and received”. You may also be able to get a temporary order known as a “Mareva” injunction to freeze the agent's bank accounts if there is evidence that it is trying to hide the money.

Most letting agents are members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) or the Association of Residential Letting Agents (Arla). Both these professional bodies have codes of practice that require their members to hold a client's money in a separate account and to pay money from that account only on express instructions. Failure to comply with these codes is a disciplinary offence, and you can complain directly to the RICS or Arla.

If the letting agent intended to take money belonging to its clients and not pay it back, this may also be the criminal offence of “obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception” — fraud. You can therefore contact the police — although they probably won't get you your money back.

The writer is a barrister at Tanfield Chambers (020-7421 5300). Email your questions to: property.consumer@thetimes.co.uk

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