Conducting OFSI checks

As of 14th May 2025, letting agents in the UK are legally required to conduct financial sanctions checks, regardless of the rental amount.

Every landlord, tenant and guarantor must be checked against the UK's sanctions list and any individuals matched must be reported to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) and a halt put to the rental.

• Landlords must be checked before their property is listed for rent
• Tenants and guarantors must be checked before they can enter into a tenancy agreement, either new or a renewal

Failure to comply can result in fines or criminal charges. More information can be found here.

What do letting agents need to do?

Letting agents are required to make a report of OFSI if they know, or have reasonable cause to suspect, that a person has committed a breach of financial sanctions regulations. This report must be done as soon as is practicable.

The report should include:

• The information or any other materials regarding the knowledge or suspicion
• Any further information that can be used to identify the person who has or is suspected of breaching the regulations

Conducting OFSI checks

1. Click Contacts on the main navigation bar

2. Select the relevant contact from Recent & Favourite Contacts

   a. Alternatively, find the contact using the Search Contacts bar in the top right

3. Click Contact on the side menu
4. Click the Compliance top tab

5. In the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) section, click OFSI Consolidated List. This will take you to the official government website where you can conduct the checks for your contact.
   (checks are required for landlords, tenants and guarantors. You should perform checks for all persons related to the contact)

   

Recording the outcome of OFSI checks

Once you've conducted the check, you'll need to record the outcome.

1. Click Add OFSI Check. A line will appear for you to record the result of the check for the contact
   (If you've also recorded a guarantor for the contact, there will be an additional line below for them too)
2. For each contact, click thumbs up or thumbs down to record the outcome of the check
   (thumbs up if the checks are clear, thumbs down to indicate a problem has been flagged)
3. Enter any details of the checks that you feel necessary, within the Notes field
4. Click Save

• Related Help Centre articles that you may find useful.

  Conducting Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks with SmartSearch

  Conducting Thirdfort ID, AML & Proof of Ownership checks for owners & buyers

  Conducting manual Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks