Complaints about unscrupulous practices involving letting agents have more than doubled in recent years, leading experts to brand the industry "reminiscent of the Wild West".
The Scottish Government has been called on to introduce further legislation to clean up the sector, which is dominated by hundreds of small agents who have no accountability to a professional body or association.
The latest figures reveal a 123% increase in grievances from tenants since 2008, with complaints to the UK's Property Ombudsman rising from 3739 to 8334.
Problems encountered by people renting properties ranged from unlawful evictions to appeals for essential repairs being ignored by agents, and inspections not being carried out. Other common complaints included deposits going missing and out-of-date and misleading sales adverts.
Only 155 out of an estimated 500 letting agents in Scotland have signed up voluntarily to the Association of Residential Letting Agents, the professional body that also has a code of conduct. Hundreds of agents are involved in more than 150,000 private lettings a year.
The boom in the number of letting agents has been driven by the slump in the housing market, with more people choosing to lease out their homes rather than sell them at a loss. More people are also renting because of problems getting on to the property ladder.
Shelter Scotland found the number of families in private rented accommodation has almost doubled in the last 10 years to 290,000 households.
The homelessness charity said in a new report that an independent regulatory body should be established for the sector and a formal, mandatory code of conduct should be introduced.
It is also campaigning for an independent scheme to be set up to deal with any disputes that arise.
The charity's director Graeme Brown hit out at "cowboy letting agents", who he said were causing "havoc and upheaval to despairing tenants".
Mr Brown said: "Private renting in Scotland is growing and changing, driven by the fast-increasing number of families and individuals looking for a safe, secure and affordable place to call home.
"Despite this, letting agents have been allowed to carry on in an unregulated sector reminiscent of the Wild West, with the flagrant disregard for the law by some causing havoc and upheaval to despairing tenants."
He said he was particularly concerned by "the growing number of families with children exposed to unscrupulous and sometimes illegal practices of some letting agents".
Mr Brown said tenants were not only losing out financially through their deposits being kept illegally, but were being prevented from settling down in communities and ensuring continuity of education for their children by the behaviour of rogue agents.
Mike Dailly, principal solicitor at Govan Law Centre in Glasgow, wants a system of statutory legislation for letting agents to be introduced in Scotland. He said: "The voluntary system has been a step in the right direction but it is not fully capable of protecting tenants in the private sector.
"There are a lot of tenants who have been pushed out of the public sector into renting through letting agents because they have nowhere to turn to, and we need to look at proper regulation to give them more protection."
The Scottish Government last year changed the law to stop prospective tenants being charged premiums on top of their deposit and rent in advance. It is now unlawful for letting agents to make additional charges for references, credit history checks and inventory fees.
A spokesman said it was committed to improving letting agents' practices, adding the legal changes made it clear to agents the practice of charging so-called premium payments for private tenancies was unlawful.
The Scottish Government also introduced the Tenancy Deposit Scheme to safeguard tenants' deposit money.
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