This evening Channel Five’s Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords is due to show a letting agent shutting eviction expert Paul Shamplina in his office.

The episode highlights the importance of Client Money Protection, when the agent, in Ilford, Essex, failed to pass on rent or carry out sufficient referencing.

The episode features landlord Doni Soeyono who decided to invest his hard-earned savings in a property.

He thought it was best to use a letting agent to avoid the headache of any potential nightmare tenants. But from the outset, all was not what it seemed.

Almost immediately, he found his rent arriving late, if at all, and his requests for information ignored.

He then discovered that the agent had not carried out proper referencing and his house was being sub-let on a Romanian website to tenants with no intention of leaving.

When confronted by Shamplina, the agent proceeded to lock him in the office. Despite this, the Landlord Action team recovered the rent for the landlord before the company folded.

Sadly, other landlords and tenants who used the same agent were not so lucky, said Shamplina.

Shamplina said: “This is a particularly difficult case. Not only is the poor landlord battling with rogue tenants residing in his property through a sub-letting scam, he is also fighting against an unscrupulous agent which has failed in every aspect of their duty of care.

“It is so important that landlords and tenants ask their agent if they have Client Money Protection insurance so that if the business closes, their money is protected. If the answer is no, do not use them.

“The sooner CMP is mandatory, the better.”