How we chose
We started from the more than fifty letting agents Google Maps shows across Telford. Scheme memberships were sourced from the Property Ombudsman and Property Redress Scheme registers, each firm's own website and the company record [1] [8] [9]. Each business must first meet our eligibility requirements: it is who it says it is, it is trading today and can be reached, and it belongs to an approved redress scheme as the law requires. Ten firms met all three. What customers say counts most toward the score, then qualifications, then whether the firm has traded two years or more and whether its cover is stated, then pricing clarity and website detail. All evidence is dated 4 September 2026.
How to hire
Start by matching the service to your letting. Let-only finds a tenant and sets up the agreement, rent collection adds monthly chasing and statements, and full management covers maintenance, inspections and compliance on top. A single Telford terrace with a reliable tenant may only need the first, while a portfolio or a distant landlord usually needs the third. Ask each agent which tier it recommends for your property and why, and get the answer tied to named duties rather than a package name.
Check redress cover before anything else. Since October 2014 every letting agent and property manager in England has been legally required to belong to a government-approved redress scheme [1]. The two schemes are the Property Ombudsman and the Property Redress Scheme. Type the branch's trading name into the search on the Ombudsman site or the Redress Scheme site and check the address matches the office you visited [8] [9]. Every firm in our top ten either sits on a register or states its membership; if you cannot find an agent on either, ask why before going further.
Then ask who holds the money. Since April 2019 any property agent holding client money, from rents to deposits, must belong to a government-approved client money protection scheme [2]. Ask to see the certificate and check it names the firm and is in date; the schemes in this round include RICS protection, Safeagent and Client Money Protect. This is separate from deposit protection: it covers money the agent holds on your behalf day to day. An agent that cannot produce a certificate is one to walk away from.
Read qualifications as clues, not guarantees. ARLA Propertymark points to trained lettings staff, RICS regulation to chartered standards with client money protection, and Safeagent to a dedicated client money scheme — but a badge on a website is the firm's own claim until you check it. Ask for the membership or registration number and check it on the scheme's own register rather than taking the logo at face value. Where this site says a scheme cannot be sourced, it means we found it nowhere: not on a register, the website or a platform.
Insist on an itemised quote. A landlord quote must show the management percentage, any set-up or tenant-find charge, renewal and re-let fees, inventory and check-out charges and whether VAT is included or added on each line. Remember the two sides of the law: what tenants can be charged has been limited since 2019 to rent, refundable deposits, holding deposits and a short list of other allowed payments [3], while landlord fees are uncapped, which is why published scales differ so much. Compare two or three agents on the same tier and the same VAT basis, and treat a price given only on the phone as a draft.
Finish with paperwork you can file. Insist on a written management agreement naming the fees, the notice period and who arranges repairs, and check the deposit goes into a government-approved scheme within thirty days with the prescribed information served on the tenant [4]. Your agent should also arrange the safety documents every let needs: a yearly gas safety record [6], an electrical report no more than five years old shared with the tenant [7], and an energy certificate in place before marketing [5]. Keep the agreement, the deposit certificate and every safety document together; you will need them if the tenancy ends badly.
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, the published scales in this round set the range. Full management runs from 11% of rent plus VAT to 13.2% including VAT, with most priced firms clustered at 12%. One-off tenant-find and set-up charges run from £150 plus VAT for a tenancy agreement to £600, where several firms sit. A priced scale with the VAT position stated is itself a good sign; the firms without one are named below.
What moves the price is the tier you choose, how VAT is treated and what counts as an extra. Let-only costs least and full management most, and a scale that adds VAT on top can overtake one that includes it once the rent is high. Renewals, re-lets, inventories, check-outs and rent protection each carry their own charge on some scales and sit inside the headline rate on others. Ask which extras your property is likely to trigger, since a yearly renewal fee soon outweighs a small gap in the headline rate.
Three kinds of silence are worth telling apart. Nock Deighton names four service tiers without percentages, Your Move and Lets Move state services without landlord rates, and Mannleys talks of competitive fees with no scale at all. None of this proves a firm expensive; it proves you cannot compare it yet. Ask each for its full scale with VAT before the valuation visit, and judge a reluctance to send one as information in itself.
Get the whole price in writing before the tenancy starts: the management rate and set-up charge with the VAT position, every extra that could apply, the agreement term and notice period, which deposit scheme will be used and who holds the money. Keep the scale with the agreement and the deposit certificate. If a charge appears later that was never listed, ask for it to be removed.
Red flags
No entry for the branch when you search its trading name on either redress register [1] [8] [9].
No client money protection certificate produced when you ask who holds your rent [2].
A management percentage quoted on the phone that never appears in a written fee scale with the VAT position.
Tenant charges beyond the allowed list, such as referencing or admin fees on top of rent and deposits [3].
No named deposit scheme and no timescale for protecting the deposit, which the law puts at thirty days [4].
No inventory or schedule of condition offered before the tenant moves in.
Pressure to sign the management agreement at the valuation, with no terms to take away.
The bottom line
For most Telford landlords, start with DB Roberts Oakengates: a regional firm with RICS-regulated management, client money protection and a priced fee scale on the table. If Oakengates is awkward, the Telford branch offers the same firm and the same scale. Either way, confirm the management percentage, the set-up charge and the VAT position in your own agreement before anything is signed.
Match the firm to the job: Belvoir for priced franchise options, Barbers for an ARLA-licensed county firm, Coleman Estates for a family-run Wellington agent, Nick Tart for an itemised Ironbridge schedule, Newton Fallowell for a large managed portfolio, and Nock Deighton for tiered packages once you have its prices in writing. Then shortlist two, compare their scales line by line, and search the branch name on the Ombudsman register before you sign.
Corrections and business responses
Tell us what needs checking, or ask to claim a listing and reply to an assessment.