FEES IN RELATION TO TENANCY AGREEMENTS SIGNED ON OR AFTER 1ST JUNE 2019
By Stanford Grey - Crawley, Gatwick, RH6
Permitted payments
For properties in England, the Tenant Fees Act 2019 means that in addition to rent, lettings agents can only charge tenants (or anyone acting on the tenant's behalf) the following permitted payments:
Holding deposits (a maximum of 1 week's rent);
Deposits (a maximum deposit of 5 weeks' rent for annual rent below £50,000, or 6 weeks' rent for annual rental of £50,000 and above);
Payments to change a tenancy agreement eg. change of sharer (capped at £50 or, if higher, any reasonable costs);
Payments associated with early termination of a tenancy (capped at the landlord's loss or the agent's reasonably incurred costs);
Utilities, communication services (eg. telephone, broadband), TV licence and council tax;
Interest payments for the late payment of rent (up to 3% above Bank of England's annual percentage rate);
Reasonable costs for replacement of lost keys or other security devices;
Contractual damages in the event of the tenant's default of a tenancy agreement; and
Any other permitted payments under the Tenant Fees Act 2019.
For properties in Wales, the Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Bill , once enacted, means that in addition to rent, lettings agents can only charge tenants (or anyone acting on the tenant's behalf) the following permitted payments:
Holding deposits (a maximum of 1 week's rent);
Deposits;
Utilities, communication services (eg. telephone, broadband), TV licence and council tax;
Payments for the late payment of rent;
A breach of a term of the contract;
Any other permitted payments under the Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Bill and regulations once enacted.
Tenant protection
In addition to publishing relevant fees, lettings agents are also required to publish details of:
the redress scheme they are a member of; and
the name of the approved or designated Client Money Protection scheme they are a member of (if any).
Last updated on 09/07/2019, 4:15 PM
Kindly note that legally, letting agents need to publish information about their tenancy fees, government-approved redress schemes and client money protection schemes on their website and on third party websites (on which agents are listed). For properties to lease/rent in England, agents need to keep this information up to date and precise on allAgents or specify within the property description.