Automated PEPs and Sanctions Checks

Referencing report

We complete sanctions checks during referencing, streamlining your journey

Figure fines avoided

Complying with sanctions regulations protects the future of your agency

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Trust score

Customers back us to deliver accurate and reliable sanctions checks

Ensure compliance

Meet regulatory obligations without lifting a finger by automating tenant screening.

Reduce risk

Identify high-risk applicants early to protect landlords from potential financial or reputational damage.

Save time

Automated checks save you from manually searching through databases.

Streamlined journey

Sanctions checks are integrated into Goodlord’s tenant referencing flow.

Automated tenant and guarantor checks

We screen tenants and guarantors against the UK sanctions list during referencing, saving you from endless back-and-forth with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI). You get full audit trails for your records.

Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) checks

Further mitigate risk by ensuring tenants in prominent public positions aren’t involved in bribery, corruption, or money laundering. Seamless checks are built directly into the Goodlord flow, with full audit logs for compliance.

Landlord Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks

Run comprehensive AML checks on all new and existing landlords to ensure you know exactly who you’re working with. Includes identity validation, PEPs and financial sanctions, and mortality and address checks.

Bulk back book check

Easily screen your existing portfolio to ensure all current tenants and guarantors meet compliance requirements. We flag issues and provide auditable results, helping you comply with confidence.

Daily monitoring

Goodlord monitors tenants and guarantors, alerting you in real time when individuals are added to the PEPs or Sanctions list. This allows you to proactively mitigate risk, ensuring continued compliance.

Remediation support

We manually review potential matches for you. This means your agents can spend more time serving your customers and winning new instructions, instead of being bogged down in admin.

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

What are sanctions?

Sanctions are restrictions that the government sets to prevent financial crime, protect national security, and uphold international obligations. They can apply to people, businesses, or even entire countries. There are several kinds of sanctions, including:

Financial sanctions - block access to assets, restrict financial services, or stop services from being provided to specific individuals or entities.
Trade sanctions - limit the buying and selling of goods with certain countries.
Immigration sanctions - prevent named individuals from entering or staying in the UK.
Transport sanctions - control aircraft and ship movements associated with sanctioned entities.

Which sanctions are most relevant to letting agents?

The key type to understand is financial sanctions, which freeze assets or block transactions with individuals or entities on the UK sanctions list.

What changed on May 14, 2025?

From May 14, 2025, letting agents have been classed as a “relevant firm” under the UK’s sanctions regulations. This means you have a legal obligation to report any confirmed or suspected sanctions breaches to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI). To make these reports, you must check every prospective tenant and landlord against the UK sanctions list.

Who does this apply to?

Regardless of size, all letting agents in the UK are affected, irrespective of whether you deal primarily with students or company lets, or work as a relocation agent. In other words, if you’re a letting agent with one or 1,000 customers, you must comply with these regulations.

Why should I care about changes to sanctions regulations?

If you let a property to a sanctioned person or company—even by mistake—you could face serious consequences. These include fines (up to £1 million or 50% of the transaction value, whichever is higher), criminal prosecution, and reputational damage.

In September 2024, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) fined a company in the lettings sector £15,000 for breaching UK sanctions.

Does every type of tenant need to be checked?

Yes, the regulations don’t distinguish between different types of tenants. All tenants who go through the referencing process must be screened.

Do landlords need to be checked?

Yes, you must check every landlord against the UK sanctions list and the named directors if the landlord is a company.

Do I need to check guarantors as well?

While the regulations specifically mention tenants and landlords, you should also consider screening guarantors, especially as they’re named parties to the tenancy. Referencing providers like Goodlord already include guarantors in their screening process.

Kyle Nelson

Director of Sales and Lettings

“PEPs and Sanctions – great. Everything’s channelled through one platform: terms of business, AML checks, and agreements. Once you’re signed up, it’s all fed from one platform. When you look at the customer journey, the main focus for a lot of businesses out there, it makes it seamless from that sense. From a compliance point of view, it makes it easy.””

Becky Ward

Director

“I feel really confident that Goodlord is always keeping up to date with all the changes in legislation. They’re constantly improving their products to suit and to make sure they’re up to speed with what’s going on in the lettings world.”

Samuel Fitz-Hugh

Co-founder

“As we now approach bigger legislation changes like the Renters’ Rights Act, and everything we’ve had in between, whether it’s more minor updates to prescribed information, tenant fee bans, or compliance adjustments from the government, Goodlord has helped with all of those.”

Automated PEPs and sanctions checks

Reduce risk and avoid huge fines with Goodlord.

Simplify sanctions compliance with a partner you can count on

Button up your compliance processes

Peace of mind at every step