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A guide to the fees that landlords can charge to tenants
10-16 minutes to read
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1. The problem in the past
Up until the Tenant Fees legislation in 2019 there were many complaints by tenants and tenants organisations about the hefty fees charged to tenants, mainly by letting agents.
These could be things like admin fees, tenancy agreement fees, renewal fees, checkout and check-in fees and the like.
Strictly speaking, these fees should have been charged to the landlords, who are after all the agent’s customer, but the fees charged directly to tenants allowed the agents to keep their landlords’ fees low.
Eventually, the government responded to the complaints by passing the Tenant Fees Act 2019 which now regulates the fees charged to tenants in England. There is similar legislation in Wales.
The rules were further amended in England by the Renters Rights Act 2025.
2.What occupation types do the rules apply to?1
Most tenants reading this will have an Assured Periodic Tenancy (APT) and these rules will apply to you.
They will also apply to licenses to occupy – which will include lodgers, and to student lettings provided by ‘specified educational institutions’ (ie if you live in student accommodation provided by/owned by the college or university providing your course).
However, the rules will not apply to
- Long leases
- Non-Housing Act tenancies (ie common law tenancies such a company lets, lets by residential landlords and tenancies with an annual rent of over £100,000 pa)
- Social housing
- Holiday accommodation
If you are not sure what your occupation type is – follow our free guide.
3. How the rules work
When drafting the Tenant Fees Act, the government was determined that there would be no loopholes in the legislation which would allow agents (and also landlords, although the problem in the past had mainly been with agents) to carry on making charges.
Now ALL fees (for the occupation types set out above) are prohibited unless they are specifically authorised by the act.
Rent
As one of the authorised fees is the rent, you can see how strict the regulations are! So far as the rent is concerned, the rules also say that the landlord cannot get around the fees prohibition by charging a higher rent in any one month – so if say, the rent is £1,000 per month, they can’t charge £1,500 in the first month instead of charging a £500 admin fee!
The Renters’ Rights Act brought in other restrictions on rent. The rules on increasing rent are explained here, along with guidance on how rent increases can be challenged.
Pet rents
In the past, landlords were able to increase the rent if tenants wanted to keep a pet. Known colloquially as a ‘pet rent’. This is no longer permitted.
The only way that landlords can increase the rent is via the statutory notice procedure, discussed in our article on increasing rent.
For more information about pets, see our article on pets in rented properties.
Let’s now take a look at the fees that can be charged.
4.The fees that can be charged:
There are the fees for England (the allowable fees for Wales are similar although there are some differences):
- Rent (as discussed above)
- A holding deposit of not more than one weeks worth of rent
- A damage deposit of not more than 5 times the monthly rent (6 times if the rent is over £50,000 pa)
- Council tax
- Utilities (e.g., electricity, gas or other fuel, water and sewage)
- A TV license
- Communications services (telephone other than a mobile telephone; the internet; cable television, satellite television)
- Any ‘green deal’ payments
- A fee of £50 if the terms of the tenancy are amended at the tenants request, or if the tenancy is assigned or if a new tenancy issued on a change of tenants
- Payment on early termination of the tenancy (but not more than the total rent due under the tenancy) – note that this is only relevant now for residential licenses, as all assured tenancies are now periodic, and tenants can end them by serving a Notice to Quit.
- The actual replacement cost of any keys lost by tenants (see below)
- Interest on unpaid rent at 3% above the Bank of England base rate (see below)
Let’s look at some of these things in more detail, although note that we have separate guides on tenancy deposits and holding deposits.
5. Lost keys
Tenants frequently lose their keys and expect their landlords to arrange for replacements so the Tenant Fees legislation provides for landlords to be refunded for this.
However, landlords can only charge:
- The cost of getting the new keys cut, and
- The actual locksmiths cost if it is necessary to replace the lock.
If the charge seems a bit high to you, ask to see the receipt and refuse to pay unless it is provided to you.
If your landlord charges more than the actual or reasonable cost for replacement keys, you can challenge this through your Local Authority trading standards office, or make an application to the First-Tier Tribunal.
6. Charges for unpaid rent
In the past landlords and agents used to make all sorts of charges for this:
- Interest charges at high-interest rates
- Daily fees for the period of time the rent was unpaid
- Charges for letters sent demanding payment
- Etc
Now the ONLY fee that can be charged is interest. This can only be:
- Charged at 3% above the Bank of England base rate
- Only if the rent remains unpaid of 14 days or longer, when the interest will be
- Chargeable from the date it fell due until payment
You can find out about the Bank of England base rate here.
The ‘proper’ method of calculation is as follows:
How to calculate the interest due:
If the Bank of England base rate is at 3.75% (for example), then your landlord can charge interest at 6.75%:
Calculation
- Arrears x 0.0675 = Annual arrears you can be charged
- Annual arrears ÷ 365 = Daily interest
- Daily interest x Number of days rent outstanding = Interest due
£500 rent arrears and 26 days outstanding
500 x .0675 = £33.75
33.75 ÷ 365 = £0.09246 (approx. 9.2p per day)
£0.09246 × 26 days = £2.40
As you can see, you are unlikely to incur substantial interest charges unless your rent remains unpaid for a long time!
In our example the annual rate of interest is £33.75 which is still not a large sum.
7. The £50 fee or expenses
The regulations authorise landlords to charge a fee of £50 (inclusive of VAT) in the following circumstances:
Changes to the tenancy agreement
If you request any amendments to the terms of your agreement after it has been signed, and the landlord agrees to this.
Probably the most common situation where this will happen is if you request leave to keep a pet which the landlord agrees to.
Change of tenant
This is not as easy as amending the agreement to allow a pet and normally the landlord will need to grant a new tenancy agreement (although sometimes the landlord will agree to an assignment). There may also be a need to do a new inventory so the incoming tenant is not charged later for damage done before they moved in.
So, in this case, the landlord can, instead of the £50 fee, charge their reasonable expenses if these are more than £50.
Reasonable expenses would include things like the cost of referencing the new tenant, carrying out a Right to Rent check, dealing with deposit registration, creating a new inventory and the preparation and signature of new legal documents.
Ending the tenancy early
This is no longer relevant for assured tenancies post Renters Rights Act. All assured tenancies are now periodic, and you can end them by serving a two month tenants Notice to Quit.
However, we give the rules as they apply to residential licenses.
Residential licenses (including lodgers)
If you want to end your license before the end of the fixed term and the landlord agrees to this, then your landlord can either charge the £50 fee or charge you their reasonable costs of re-letting the property, as well as all rent due under the fixed term until the start of any new replacement license.
However, the costs and rent combined cannot be more than the total amount of remaining rent due under the existing fixed term (so you can’t end up paying more than you would if you had just carried on living in the property).
Note by the way that landlords do not have to agree to end a fixed term early and are perfectly entitled to insist that you pay the rent until the end of the fixed term, even if you are not living in the property.
8. Challenging fees
If your landlord is looking to charge a fee which you believe is unauthorised there are a number of things you can do:
Refuse to pay
If the fee is in breach of the tenant fees legislation the landlord will not succeed in any claim for the fee so you are perfectly entitled to refuse to pay. Even if it is set out in your tenancy agreement.
Claim the payment back
If you have paid the fee, then you can request that it be refunded to you. If your landlord refuses you can bring a claim to the First-Tier Tribunal. Any order made by the tribunal will be payable within 7 or 14 days and if not paid will be enforceable as if it were a County Court Judgement.
Alternatively, you can recoup the money by:
- the payment being applied towards a payment of rent under the tenancy
- the payment being applied towards the Tenancy Deposit in respect of the tenancy,
- some of the payment being applied to the rent and the rest being applied towards a Tenancy Deposit
Complaining to your Local Authority
Local Authorities are now required by statute to enforce the landlord legislation in their area, so they are more likely to take action than formerly. They have the power to:
- Charge a penalty fine of up to £30,000 per offence
- Bring a prosecution at the Magistrates Courts where the landlord can be fined.
They are unlikely to do this though unless the overcharging is serious. So if your landlord has overcharged you by £5 for your deposit, they are unlikely to help! (Although technically they could).
This is the end of this article.
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