The Tenant Fees Act sets what you may charge a tenant, and it changed on 1 May 2026.
Section 3(1): a payment is prohibited unless Schedule 1 permits it. Start from this list and check each charge against it.
Rent payable before an assured tenancy is entered into is prohibited from 1 May 2026.
Five weeks’ rent where annual rent is under £50,000; six weeks’ at £50,000 or more.
One week’s rent, one at a time per property, repaid within 7 days when due.
Lost keys at evidenced cost, and interest on rent 14 days late at 3% above base rate.
For a breach of the tenancy agreement.
The greater of £50 or reasonable, evidenced costs.
At the tenant’s request: the landlord’s loss, or the agent’s reasonable costs.
Council tax, utilities, TV licence and communication services where the tenancy requires them.
The rule that a landlord holding an unlawful fee could not serve a section 21 notice is gone, removed by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. Section 21 was abolished the same day.
Rent before the tenancy starts is prohibited, and so is loading rent into earlier periods, compared across the first twelve months.
A separate breach for a landlord or agent to invite, encourage, accept an offer of, or accept a prohibited pre-tenancy rent payment.
The Act has applied to new, renewed and continued tenancies since 1 June 2019, and to all tenancies since 1 June 2020. Wales has its own Act, under which a prohibited payment is a criminal offence from the start.
Holding deposits are client money until they are applied or repaid, and the repayment deadline is seven days. Keep them visible as balances with dates, separate from the client account total.
For a variation fee above £50, keep the evidence of the cost at the time you charge it.
Late rent interest is capped at 3% above base rate and has to be worked out for each tenancy.
Only what Schedule 1 permits, because s.3(1) makes every payment prohibited unless it is a permitted payment. The list is short: rent; a tenancy deposit; a holding deposit capped at one week's rent; two default payments and no others; damages for breach; a variation, assignment or novation fee capped at the greater of £50 or reasonable evidenced costs; early termination at the tenant's request; and council tax, utilities, TV licence and communication services where the tenancy requires them. The two permitted defaults are a lost key or security device, limited to costs reasonably incurred and evidenced in writing to the tenant, and rent unpaid fourteen days after its due date, where interest is capped at 3% above the Bank of England base rate. Charging both landlord and agent for the same default is prohibited.
Five weeks' rent where the annual rent is less than £50,000, and six weeks' where it is £50,000 or more. One week's rent means the annual rent immediately after the grant, renewal or continuance divided by 52. It has applied since 1 June 2019. At the top end, MHCLG guidance states that tenancies with annual rent exceeding £100,000 fall outside the Act altogether — the mechanism being s.28 read with Housing Act 1988 Schedule 1 para 2, since a tenancy at rent exceeding £100,000 a year cannot be an assured tenancy. The holding deposit is separate and capped at one week's rent, with only one held at a time per property.
Tighter than most agencies operate. The deadline for agreement is the fifteenth day of the period beginning with the day you receive it, unless a different deadline is agreed in writing. Repayment is due within seven days of the relevant date. It must be repaid if the tenancy is entered into, if the landlord decides not to proceed before the deadline, or if the parties fail to agree by the deadline. It may be retained in defined cases: applied to first rent or the deposit with the tenant's consent; where immigration status prohibits the tenancy and neither party knew or ought to have known; where the tenant gave false or misleading information the landlord may reasonably take into account; where the tenant withdraws; or where you took all reasonable steps and the tenant did not. Paragraph 13 overrides all of those if you yourself breached the fee rules or behaved so unreasonably the tenant cannot reasonably be expected to proceed.
Yes, substantially, on 1 May 2026 — and the change removed the lever agents were most often warned about. Section 17, which prevented a landlord serving a section 21 notice while holding an unlawful fee, was omitted by the Renters' Rights Act 2025. Section 21 itself was abolished the same day, so the lever is gone twice over. Anything you read online repeating that position is out of date. What remains is more direct: a civil penalty of up to £5,000 for a first breach, proved beyond reasonable doubt; a criminal offence with an unlimited fine for a further breach within five years of a penalty or conviction for a different breach of the same section; a financial penalty of £5,000 to £30,000 as an alternative to prosecution; and the tenant's own route to the First-tier Tribunal under s.15(3) to recover the payment, with no time limit stated in the section.
A blanket prohibition, binding agents directly. Section 9 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 prohibits rent in advance before an assured tenancy is entered into, and it catches inviting it, encouraging it, accepting an offer of it and accepting it — whether it is paid to you or to a third party. Section 8 then inserts s.4B, making terms providing for rent to be due in advance of no effect, while s.4B(2)(c) permits initial rent during the permitted pre-tenancy period, meaning rent for the first rent period or any later period ending within the first 28 days. The government's guide puts the net effect simply: up to one month's rent, or 28 days for tenancies under a month, only after the agreement is signed, and nothing before it. A new s.5A in the Tenant Fees Act creates a separate breach for inviting or accepting a prohibited pre-tenancy payment, closing the “the tenant offered it” route.
Squarely. Section 56 binds a relevant person, defined as the prospective landlord or a person acting, or purporting to act, directly or indirectly on their behalf — which is a letting agent. When you advertise in writing you must state a specific proposed rent, and you may not invite or encourage an offer above it, or accept one. A sign at the dwelling that merely says “to let” is exempt. The government's guide gives penalties of up to £7,000 for an initial breach and up to £40,000 for repeat or serious breaches, with agents able to receive multiple penalties. Those figures come from the guide. Section 56 itself contains no penalty provision, and enforcement sits elsewhere in the Act.
No. Wales has its own Act, with different rules. The Tenant Fees Act extends to England and Wales but applies only to a tenancy of housing in England. Wales is governed by the Renting Homes (Fees, Discrimination etc.) (Wales) Act 2019, in force from 1 September 2019, which applies to standard occupation contracts under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. The structural difference is that a prohibited payment in Wales is an offence from the outset, with a £1,000 fixed penalty notice available and enforcement by local housing authorities. Deposit and default caps in Wales are set by regulations made under the Act. Check the Welsh figures before relying on any cap. Wales has also added Part 2A discrimination provisions and retains its analogue of the English section that was repealed.
We check how holding deposits and fees run through your client account.