The Employment Rights Act 2025 and what it means for your agency
The Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025) introduces two seismic changes to UK employment law that directly affect any employer with staff working alone in the field. Estate agencies, letting agencies, and property management firms are among the highest-risk organisations in scope.
The two critical provisions are:
April 2026 (now live): Sexual harassment complaints achieve protected whistleblowing status from day one of employment. Employers must provide secure, confidential, and tamper-proof reporting channels or face immediate retaliation claims.
October 2026 (5 months away): The harassment prevention standard escalates from ‘reasonable steps’ to ‘all reasonable steps,’ with strict third-party liability reinstated. Employers become directly liable for client or customer harassment of their staff if they have failed to implement adequate preventative systems.
Why property viewings create specific ERA 2025 exposure
Property viewings are classified as lone working under HSE INDG73 guidance — any task performed out of sight or hearing of colleagues qualifies. Every unaccompanied viewing conducted by a negotiator, lettings agent, or property manager creates direct ERA 2025 exposure.
56% of lone workers report having experienced verbal or physical abuse in the past 12 months. 50% have actively avoided a task or location due to safety concerns. Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 already permits employees to refuse tasks they believe present serious, imminent danger — a right that becomes significantly easier to invoke once the October 2026 duty comes into force.
What ‘all reasonable steps’ requires
The ‘all reasonable steps’ standard under ERA 2025 is materially higher than the previous ‘reasonable steps’ threshold of the Worker Protection Act 2023. Courts and tribunals will assess compliance against the following criteria:
- Risk assessment: Has the employer conducted and documented a specific risk assessment for lone working scenarios?
- Technology deployment: Has the employer deployed dedicated safety technology capable of raising instantaneous alarms?
- Reporting infrastructure: Does the employer maintain a secure, confidential reporting channel for harassment disclosures?
- Policy documentation: Are policies current, distributed, and demonstrably aligned with current EHRC guidance?
- Staff training: Have employees received structured training on the use of safety systems and their reporting rights?
Satisfying this standard requires a documented, operational programme — not a policy document filed in an HR drawer.
Protected whistleblowing and the April 2026 provisions
From April 2026, sexual harassment disclosures are classified as protected whistleblowing disclosures under ERA 2025. This classification means:
- Protection applies from day one of employment, with no qualifying period
- Retaliation against a staff member for reporting harassment is automatically unlawful
- Employers who cannot demonstrate a secure, private, and confidential reporting channel face immediate additional liability
The standard corporate suggestion box, a line manager conversation, or a general HR email address do not satisfy these requirements. The reporting channel must be encrypted, confidential, and structurally isolated from the management hierarchy of the person being reported.
The financial exposure calculation
The ERA 2025 third-party liability standard creates a compound financial risk that most estate agency owners have not fully quantified:
| Risk factor | Financial impact |
|---|---|
| Average harassment tribunal award | £53,403 (uncapped) |
| WPA 2023 uplift for non-compliance | +25% = ~£67,000 |
| ERA 2025 whistleblowing retaliation claim | Additional uncapped award |
| HSE Fee for Intervention | £188/hour during investigation |
| Legal defence costs | Typically £15,000–£50,000 |
| Insurance invalidation potential | Entire employer liability policy |
For a 10-person agency, The Sentry costs £395 per year — representing a fraction of the minimum realistic exposure from a single successful tribunal claim.
Why property viewings are specifically classified as lone working
A property viewing satisfies all three definitional criteria for lone working under HSE INDG73:
- The worker is physically separate from their colleagues and management
- The worker cannot receive immediate assistance in the event of an emergency
- The worker is in contact with members of the public who have not been vetted
This classification is not a borderline interpretation. It is the explicit definition used by the Health and Safety Executive, and it applies to every single unaccompanied viewing conducted by your team — regardless of whether the property is occupied or vacant, urban or rural, daytime or evening.
The 6–9 month compliance timeline
Full ERA 2025 compliance is not achievable overnight. The following activities require structured lead time:
- Policy drafting and legal review: 2–4 weeks
- Technology procurement and testing: 2–4 weeks
- Staff training and communication programme: 4–6 weeks
- Embedded safety culture development: 3–6 months
- Compliance documentation and audit trail establishment: Ongoing from deployment
Agencies that begin now have a realistic opportunity to demonstrate active compliance well before the October 2026 deadline. Those that delay risk entering the compliance window with insufficient evidence of proactive action — the precise circumstance that triggers the +25% tribunal uplift.
How The Sentry satisfies ERA 2025
The Sentry was updated following the April 2026 ERA 2025 provisions to ensure clients remain fully compliant:
Private incident reporting channel provides an encrypted, structurally independent reporting pathway that satisfies the whistleblowing-compliant disclosure requirement from day one.
Encrypted audit trail automatically records all session activity, creating the legally defensible evidence base that demonstrates ‘all reasonable steps’ were taken on every working day.
Compliance documentation pack includes updated policy templates, staff communication materials, and EHRC alignment mapping — all updated to reflect ERA 2025 obligations.
One-hour deployment means there is no technical or logistical excuse for delayed compliance. Any estate agency in the UK can be fully protected by The Sentry on the same day they sign up.
Rebecca Evans is founder of The Sentry, specialising in UK employment law obligations and lone worker safety for the property sector.