Britain’s property ombudsman has recommended that government ensure more effective regulation of letting agents, reports the Residential Landlords Association (RLA).

Ombudsman Christopher Hamer sees this as a way to offer residential landlords, as well as their tenants, a higher level of protection against abuse or poor service.

He reached the decision that more regulation was necessary, after seeing a rise in the number of landlords and buy to let investors submitting complaints against letting agents which in his opinion means greater oversight is required.

Hamer believes that this is an issue of consumer rights protection, and the public sector can play a role in ensuring that landlords enjoy certain protections and better service when they turn to letting agents.

The number of complaints filed against letting agents has soared and 49 percent of the ombudsman's cases last year had to do with this sector.

But some observers caution that this dramatic increase may have more to do with the state of the buy to let market in recessionary times, than with a major rise in the number of letting agents offering poor service.

Last year saw the in-flux of so-called ‘accidental landlords’ into the rental market and the majority were homeowners who reluctantly decided to rent their house, due to the difficulties of selling property, low real estate values and a dearth of mortgages.

As such, while the number of complaints filed against letting agents grew, estate agents had fewer unhappy clients.

While estate agents are registered members of a special complaints and redress programme, letting agents have yet to be required to join this scheme. If these changes are implemented, the property ombudsman would have more of a supervisory role over lettings agents and basic standards of service would likely be more precisely defined.