A Client Money Protection scheme launched last year for members of UKALA has been formally approved.

The approval, by housing minister Heather Wheeler, comes ahead of the likely start date of April 1, when CMP becomes mandatory for letting agents.

The UKALA scheme offers ‘total loss’ CMP, meaning that tenants and landlords will be able to claim back all their losses should their agent misappropriate their money. The scheme is facilitated by LetAlliance, and underwritten by Hiscox.

There has yet to be an official confirmation of the April 1 launch date.

As EYE has reported, CMP schemes require agents that belong to them to hold client money in separate bank accounts.

This is also a government requirement. However, amid reports that some banks have refused to let agents open client money accounts – the reasons are thought to be administrative – the Government has been looking to delay this part of mandatory CMP by a year.

Thousands of agents set to break CMP legal requirement ‘after struggling to open client accounts’