Letting agents have less than a week in which to sign up to an approved redress scheme. The deadline is October 1.

The signs are that letting agents are heeding the dangers of risking fines of up to £5,000 for non-compliance.

We asked all three redress schemes for information about membership numbers, sign-up rates and whether there was a pattern in recruitment.

The Property Redress Scheme, the newest of the ombudsman schemes, said it has recruited 500 agents and believes it will have recruited another 500 shortly.

Sean Hooker, head of redress at the Property Redress Scheme, said: “Our phones have been ringing off the hook.”

He added: “We’ve had a tsunami of interest, first in the form of inquiries about the Property Redress Scheme from our website, and now with over 500 agents confirmed as members we are well on track to reach our ambitious target of 1,000 agents on board by the deadline of October 1 or soon afterwards.

“Much of this success is also down to having the right recruitment strategy.

“We have taken the time and trouble these past six months to talk to agents face to face, to understand their needs and concerns, and to hear what they wanted from a consumer redress scheme.

“The development of our two-tier membership was in direct response to agents’ feedback.

“We’ve also met with agent trade associations, national and regional landlord associations, alerted MPs in constituencies with high student populations or an active private rental sector, and heavily supported the Department for Communities and Local Government in getting the message out to the country’s 4,000+ agents who are not currently a member of a scheme.”

Ombudsman Services said it was unable to supply actual up-to-date information on numbers.

However, a spokesperson confirmed a rise in membership, and said: “Over the past year, we’ve seen a steady rise in the number of companies signing up to our redress scheme particularly after being appointed by UKALA to serve its 500 letting and management agents in March. We expect the number of memberships to increase further still, as the October 1 deadline draws closer.”

The Property Ombudsman Scheme said it is on course for having around 12,000 letting agents signed up to it.

It gave Eye these figures:

TPO membership figures: Lettings

•         Dec 2012: 9,748

•         Dec 2013: 10,903 (12% increase since Dec 2012)

•         April 2014: 11,259 (3% increase since Dec 2013)

•         May 2014: 11,453 (5% increase since Dec 2013, 2% increase since April 2014)

•         June 2014: 11,575 (6% increase since Dec 2013, 3% increase since April 2014)

•         July 2014: 11,664 (7% increase since Dec 2013, 4% increase since April 2014)

•         August 2014: 11,744 (8% increase since Dec 2013, 4% increase since April 2014)

A TPO spokesperson said: “Taking into account new membership figures so far for September, it looks like we’ll have an additional 1,000 letting agents signed up so far this year – around 12,000 in total.