An agent has been expelled from The Property Ombudsman scheme – and unless it pays an award made against it, will find it impossible to carry on trading legally.

The expulsion of MT Properties Central was announced on Friday.

None of the three redress schemes will take on an agent expelled by one of the other two, unless the agent complies with the terms of the decision.

That is part of a memorandum of understanding.

It means that if an agent with any scheme fails to pay an award, no scheme will accept them as a member until the award is paid.

This means that they cannot legally trade, because of the mandatory requirement for both sales and lettings agents to belong to a redress scheme.

MT Properties Central, a sales and letting agent with two branches in Birmingham, has been expelled by TPO for a minimum of two years.

TPO says the firm failed to follow the Code of Practice for Residential Letting Agents, failed to co-operate with the Ombudsman’s investigation, and to date has not paid the award made of £2,300.

TPO said: “The decision to expel MTPC from TPO membership arose following a complaint from landlords relating to a number of aspects of the agent’s service in connection with tenancies at two properties.

“The Ombudsman found evidence of poor record keeping and administration, and upheld complaints about the collection and payment of rent to landlords, as well as poor service.

“The agent’s poor record keeping made it difficult to be sure what rent had been received and what had been paid to the landlords.

“However, the Ombudsman decided that four months’ rent was owed to the landlords in respect of one property.

“He was critical of the fact that the agent had named themselves as the landlord on the tenancy agreement for the other property, instead of the actual landlords. “It was noted that if this prohibited the landlords from pursuing the rent arrears, the agent should do so on the landlord’s behalf.

“The Ombudsman was also critical of the agent’s poor communication with the landlords, failure to pursue one tenant for full rent payments and poor complaints handling.

“A complaint about the handling of the termination of the contract with the landlord was also upheld.

“Because of poor record keeping the Ombudsman was unable to reach a conclusion on a complaint about tenants being accepted by the agent without any referencing. But the Ombudsman said the agent should have clearly documented that they had advised the landlords that it was not in their best interests.

“Following the investigation, the Ombudsman awarded the complainants a total of £2,300 compensation to cover the aggravation, distress and inconvenience caused, as well as outstanding rent. MTPC has not yet paid the award.”

TPO Christopher Hamer added: “In this case I determined there were severe shortcomings in the agent’s approach. I supported four of the five complaints and made an award in favour of the landlord.

“The agent however has failed to meet his obligations to pay that award and has now felt the consequences.”

At the weekend, the firm was still showing TPO logos for both sales and lettings.

Eye has contacted the firm to offer it the opportunity to respond.