Barking and Dagenham Managing Agent and Letting Agent Licensing Responsibilities

If you use a letting agent or managing agent for your Barking and Dagenham rental property, the owner is usually the proposed licence holder. Agents don't hold the licence by default — and misunderstanding how the roles work is one of the most common reasons landlords end up operating unlicensed.

Who Holds the Licence

Under the Housing Act 2004, the licence holder must be the individual or corporate body with legal entitlement to control the property, collect rent, and authorise repairs and tenancy decisions. For most privately rented properties in Barking and Dagenham, that's the property owner.

Your letting agent is typically named as the proposed manager on the licence application — the person or agency responsible for day-to-day property management. Both the proposed licence holder and the proposed manager go through LBBD's fit and proper person assessment.

An agent can be named as the licence holder only if it has the legal entitlement to control the property, collect rent, and authorise repairs and tenancy decisions. The licence holder remains responsible for the licence conditions, even if an agent handles day-to-day management.

What Agents Must Do Under the Licence

Once a licence is granted, both the licence holder and the named manager share responsibility for meeting the conditions. In practice, the division depends on your management agreement, but LBBD holds the licence holder ultimately accountable.

Typical agent responsibilities under a full management agreement include:

• Arranging and renewing Gas Safety Certificates, EICRs, and EPCs before they expire
• Testing smoke alarms and CO detectors at the start of each new tenancy
• Providing tenants with required documentation (How to Rent guide, gas certificates, EPC, deposit information)
• Responding to tenant repair requests within reasonable timescales
• Managing anti-social behaviour complaints and keeping written records
• Being available for LBBD compliance inspections

The critical point: even if your agent handles all of this, you as the licence holder remain legally responsible for the licence conditions. Property managers may also face enforcement under the applicable law.

When Agents Change

Changing your managing agent mid-licence is common. Under LBBD's licensing system, a change of manager is a free licence variation — you notify the PRPL team through the online portal and update the named manager. There's no additional fee for this, and the licence doesn't need to be reissued.

What does cost a full new application fee is changing the licence holder entirely — transferring the licence to a new owner after a property sale, for example. Licences aren't transferable between owners. The buyer must submit a fresh application, pass the fit and proper test, and pay the full Part A and Part B fees.

If your agent terminates your management agreement, you need to act quickly. Either appoint a new agent and notify LBBD of the change, or take over direct management yourself and update the licence accordingly. Leaving the licence with a named manager who no longer manages the property is a breach of conditions.

Agents and the Application Process

LBBD's licensing portal allows agents to create their own accounts and submit applications on behalf of landlords. But the application must still name the property owner as the proposed licence holder (unless the agent explicitly agrees to hold the licence).

Agents submitting on a landlord's behalf should coordinate on document uploads — the portal needs compliance certificates (gas, EICR, EPC), measured floor plans, and proof that interested parties (mortgage lenders, freeholders) have been notified. Agents often have these documents on file, but it's worth verifying that everything is current before the agent hits submit, because a rejected application forfeits the Part A fee regardless of who pressed the button.

For a complete breakdown of the application workflow, agent roles, and licence conditions, the Barking and Dagenham Landlord Licensing Guide covers the full process from pre-application checks through post-grant maintenance.

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