ARLA has defended a new practice by which a large number of agents are turning the tenancy fees ban to commercial advantage.

Agents have taken to emphasising in their adverts that they don’t charge fees – even though it would be against the law if they did.

Thousands of Rightmove listings include phrases such as “no admin fees,” “no tenant fees” or “no referencing fees” in their property descriptions.

While some tenants might think that this is an agent’s USP rather than a legal requirement, David Cox, chief executive of ARLA Propertymark, told EYE: “Whilst not charging fees is simply adhering to the law, there’s no reason that letting agents shouldn’t take commercial advantage of this legislative change.

“In fact, it may be an important way to raise consumer awareness of the tenant fees ban and will serve to highlight those agents still charging admin fees to prospective tenants illegally.”

EYE set up a search for rental properties last Friday within a 40-mile radius of the central London postcode EC1A.

This returned 53,945 rental property listings, excluding house shares.

Of these, 53,897 contained the keyword “no admin fees” in their property description.

Even online agent OpenRent, which never charged fees, still states towards the end of its listings that no admin fee will be charged.

A spokesman said it was important that tenants were still aware that there shouldn’t be any charges.

Several agents, including Romans, state in capital letters at the top of their listings that no admin fees will be charged.

Richard O’Neill, managing director for Romans Lettings, said: “In the run-up to the tenant fee ban coming into effect, the benefits to tenants were well publicised across industry news and throughout lettings agency networks.

“However, our lettings teams have reported that many tenants are still not aware of the change and so as well as letting tenants know about the fee ban when they first enquire, our agents are also using property listings to help highlight this fact.”

A Rightmove spokesperson said agents have been advised to use the ‘tenancy info’ box that’s provided on every listing to outline any permitted payments so that tenants are aware.