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Tenant Farming Commissioner publishes Conduct of Agents Guide

Scotland’s Tenant Farming Commissioner (TFC), Bob McIntosh, has today published a Guide to the Professional Conduct of Agents and How to make a Complaint.

The guide is to help landlords and tenants to understand what standards of conduct they should expect from a professional agent, and the actions that they should take to help ensure that any instances of poor conduct are addressed promptly and effectively.

It has been developed as part of the recommendations made by the TFC to Scottish Ministers following a review of the conduct of agents of agricultural landlords and tenants.

The review found that landlords and tenants were generally satisfied by the conduct of agents working on their behalf but less so with that of agents acting on behalf of the other party. Overall, 17 per cent of both landlords and tenants were dissatisfied with the conduct of an agent and dissatisfaction was generally linked to behaviour rather than to any lack of technical or legal knowledge on the part of the agent.

The professional standards and the codes of practice, along with the associated complaints systems, should ensure that agents can be held to account in most circumstances where there is a failure in respect of conduct or standard of service but in practice few such complaints are made.

Bob McIntosh explains “The professional standards and complaint systems have an important part to play in driving up standards and dealing with bad practice, so it is vital that the system is widely understood and is readily accessible.

“This guide provides a handy checklist for anyone considering employing a professional agent, some general principles of good practice that should always be followed and information about how to make a complaint.

“Most agents perform their duties in a professional manner but the actions of a small minority can have a disproportionate effect on the reputation of the agent, their employers or their profession.  It is important that landlords and tenants do complain about the unacceptable conduct of agents so that standards can be raised and poor behaviour addressed.”

The Guides are available here.