What Fees Can Landlords Charge Tenants?
In England you can charge rent, a holding deposit of one week’s rent, a tenancy deposit of five or six weeks’ rent, and a short list of default fees. Everything else, including referencing, admin, inventory and check-out charges, is banned.
The Tenant Fees Act 2019 works as a closed list. If a payment is not named in Schedule 1, you cannot ask a tenant for it, whatever you call it on the invoice.
A first breach costs up to £5,000. A second inside five years reaches £30,000 or a criminal prosecution, which is a bigger number than most buy-to-let properties make in a year.
The Tenant Fees Act works as a closed list, so if a payment isn’t named in it you can’t ask a tenant for it, whatever the invoice calls it. Rent, a capped holding deposit, a capped tenancy deposit and a short set of default fees are what’s left; referencing, admin, inventory and check-out charges are banned. A default fee only stands if the tenancy agreement sets it out and you can evidence the loss you actually incurred. Penalties climb steeply for a repeat breach, and an unlawful fee has to be repaid before you can recover possession.
Compare landlord insurance quotes rather than looking for fees you are not allowed to charge.
- Which payments sit on the permitted list?
- What can you no longer charge for?
- How much deposit can you take?
- What are the rules on holding deposits?
- When can you charge a default fee?
- What did the renters' rights act change?
- What happens if you charge a banned fee?
- Do the same rules apply in Wales and Scotland?
- Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Which payments sit on the permitted list?
Schedule 1 permits eight things: rent, a tenancy deposit, a holding deposit, default payments, damages for a breach of the agreement, a variation or assignment charge, an early termination payment, and bills the tenant has agreed to pay.
The closed list against the banned list
Read the two columns below side by side before you draft a tenancy agreement. Anything in the right-hand column is a prohibited payment even if the tenant offered to pay it.
| Permitted payment | The limit that applies | Banned payment |
| Rent | No cap on the amount, but no rent at all before signing and no more than the first rent period in advance | Referencing and credit checks |
| Tenancy deposit | 5 weeks’ rent under £50,000 annual rent, 6 weeks’ at £50,000 or more | Administration and set-up fees |
| Holding deposit | 1 week’s rent, returned or applied within 15 days | Contract drafting or renewal fees |
| Default payment | Late rent interest and the actual cost of a lost key only | Check-in, check-out and inventory fees |
| Variation or assignment | £50, or your evidenced reasonable costs if higher | Professional cleaning as a condition of the let |
| Early termination | Your actual loss, or the agreed sum if lower | Viewing fees and reservation fees |
| Council tax and utilities | Only where the tenant is contractually liable | Requiring a named insurance or guarantor product |
Why not listed means not allowed
Enforcement officers look at what a payment does, not what it is called. A set-up contribution, a processing charge and an application fee are the same banned fee wearing three hats.
You also cannot make a tenant buy a product to get the tenancy. Telling them to take out a named tenant contents policy is a prohibited payment, although you can suggest they arrange cover of their own choosing.
What can you no longer charge for?
Referencing, admin, contract, check-in, check-out, inventory and professional cleaning charges are all banned. So is any requirement that a tenant takes out a loan, an insurance policy or a paid guarantor service.
The charges landlords still try
- Referencing and credit checks, including the guarantor’s reference. Every penny of that cost is yours.
- Inventory, check-in and check-out inspections, however the agent itemises them on your statement.
- Professional cleaning at the start or end of the tenancy as a term of the agreement.
- Renewal fees when a fixed term rolls over, which no longer exist as a concept since tenancies became periodic.
- Deposit replacement products and paid guarantor services that the tenant has not freely chosen.
Renaming a fee does not save it
Your own running costs stay with you. You cannot bill a tenant for your landlord buildings insurance, your gas safety check or your licensing fee as a separate line, though you can price all of it into the rent.
Inflating rent to recover banned fees is riskier than it looks. Councils compare your advertised rent with local comparables, and a rent well above the market invites a closer look at the whole tenancy file.
How much deposit can you take?
Five weeks’ rent where the annual rent is under £50,000, and six weeks’ where it is £50,000 or more. The holding deposit is capped separately at one week’s rent.
Working the cap out at real rents
Multiply the monthly rent by 12, divide by 52, then multiply by five or six. Round down rather than up, because a single pound over the cap is a prohibited payment.
| Monthly rent | Annual rent | Weekly rent | Maximum deposit | Holding deposit |
| £800 | £9,600 | £184.62 | £923.08 (5 weeks) | £184.62 |
| £1,200 | £14,400 | £276.92 | £1,384.62 (5 weeks) | £276.92 |
| £2,000 | £24,000 | £461.54 | £2,307.69 (5 weeks) | £461.54 |
| £4,200 | £50,400 | £969.23 | £5,815.38 (6 weeks) | £969.23 |
| £8,400 | £100,800 | n/a | Act does not apply | Act does not apply |
Where the cap stops applying
Above £100,000 of annual rent the letting cannot be an assured tenancy, so the Act does not bite at all. The same is true of genuine company lets and of short-term holiday lets, which are licences rather than tenancies.
In an HMO let room by room, each tenant has their own agreement and their own cap based on their own rent. Let the same house on one joint agreement and there is a single cap on the whole rent.
What you can still deduct at the end
Damage beyond fair wear and tear still comes out of the protected deposit, and the government’s deposit protection rules give you 30 days to protect the money and serve the prescribed information.
What you cannot do is invent a separate damage fee mid-tenancy. Tenant damage is either a deposit deduction, a county court claim, or a matter for your accidental damage cover.
What are the rules on holding deposits?
You can take one week’s rent to hold a property, and you have 15 days to grant the tenancy or hand the money back. If you keep any of it, your written reasons must reach the tenant within 7 days of the decision.
The four grounds for keeping it
- The tenant withdraws and decides not to take the property.
- The tenant fails a right to rent check and has no right to rent in England.
- The tenant gives false or misleading information that materially affects their suitability, such as an invented salary.
- The tenant fails to take all reasonable steps to enter into the agreement while you are doing the same.
The deadlines that catch landlords out
The 15 day clock starts the day you receive the money, not the day referencing finishes. You can agree a longer deadline in writing before you take the payment, and nowhere else.
You may only hold one deposit per property at a time. Taking two on the same flat while you decide between applicants makes the second one a prohibited payment on the spot.
When can you charge a default fee?
Only for late rent and for replacing a lost key or security device, and only where the tenancy agreement expressly provides for it. Both are capped and both need evidence.
Late rent interest, and how little it comes to
Rent has to be more than 14 days overdue before you can charge anything. Interest then runs at 3% above the Bank of England base rate, calculated daily on the overdue amount from the date it fell due.
With a base rate of 4%, that is 7% a year on £1,200 of arrears, or roughly 23p a day. Thirty days late earns you about £6.90, which is why the fee is a deterrent rather than a remedy.
You cannot add a reminder letter charge, an arrears administration fee or a debt collection cost on top. If missed rent is a real risk on your tenancy, rent guarantee insurance does the job the banned fee never did.
Lost keys and security devices
You can recover the actual cost of cutting a key, recoding a fob or changing a lock. Keep the invoice, because the tenant can ask for written evidence and the tribunal will expect to see it.
Your own call-out time is not chargeable. Neither is a mark-up on the locksmith, and neither is a standing key deposit collected at the start of the tenancy.
Variations, assignments and early termination
Changing the agreement, adding a tenant or assigning the tenancy costs the tenant £50, or your reasonable costs if they are higher and you can evidence them. Anything above £50 without paperwork is a prohibited payment.
Early termination is different again. You can recover the loss you actually suffer, capped at the rent that would have been payable, and not a penny of penalty on top.
| Default or event fee | When you can charge it | The cap | Evidence needed |
| Late rent | Rent more than 14 days overdue and a term in the agreement | 3% above Bank of England base rate, daily, on the overdue sum | The rent account and the tenancy clause |
| Lost key or fob | Replacement of a key or security device | The actual replacement cost | A receipt or written quote |
| Variation or assignment | Tenant asks to change or transfer the agreement | £50, or evidenced reasonable costs if higher | Costed breakdown of the work |
| Early termination | Tenant leaves before an agreed end date | Your actual loss, never more than the remaining rent | Re-let costs and void dates |
What did the renters’ rights act change?
Since 1 May 2026 you cannot take any rent before the agreement is signed, and you cannot require more than the first rent period in advance afterwards. You also cannot invite or accept a bid above your advertised rent.
Rent in advance is now capped
Sections 8 and 9 of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 make any rent demanded before the tenancy is entered into a prohibited payment. After signing, you can ask for the first rent period and nothing beyond it.
Six or twelve months up front is therefore gone as a way of housing students, overseas tenants or the newly self-employed. A guarantor, a larger deposit within the cap, or cover for lost rental income now has to do that work instead.
The rental bidding ban
Section 56 requires every written advertisement to state a specific proposed rent, and forbids you or your agent from inviting, encouraging or accepting an offer above it. The government’s guide to the Renters’ Rights Act sets out how councils police it.
A breach carries a financial penalty of up to £7,000 under section 57, and a repeat within five years can attract a second penalty on top. The same chapter bans refusing tenants on housing benefit or with children, so a rent auction dressed up as a shortlist is doubly exposed.
The old section 21 block has gone
Section 17 of the Tenant Fees Act used to stop you serving a Section 21 notice while a prohibited payment sat unrepaid. It was removed on 1 May 2026 alongside Section 21 itself.
The exposure moved rather than disappeared. An unlawful charge cannot be counted as arrears, so a possession claim built on a contaminated rent account can fail on the arithmetic, and legal expenses cover is what funds the argument.
What happens if you charge a banned fee?
A first breach is a civil penalty of up to £5,000 imposed by the council without any court hearing. A second inside five years is up to £30,000 or a criminal prosecution with an unlimited fine.
How councils enforce it
Trading standards and district councils enforce the Act, and each separate prohibited payment can attract its own penalty. Four banned charges across four tenancies is four penalties, not one.
A conviction can bring a banning order under the Housing and Planning Act 2016 and an entry on the database of rogue landlords and property agents. Two financial penalties in twelve months is enough to put you on that database.
How tenants get their money back
A tenant applies to the First-tier Tribunal under section 15, which can order repayment of the whole amount. You then have between 7 and 14 days to pay before the order is enforceable in the county court.
Your letting agent is liable on the same terms and can lose their redress scheme membership as well. Ask for their fee schedule in writing at renewal, and check it against the list above, as the NRLA advises its members to do each year.
The cost nobody budgets for
The penalty is rarely the whole bill. A £5,000 fine on a single flat wipes out roughly three years of net rental profit on a £1,000 a month tenancy once mortgage interest and maintenance are taken out.
Do the same rules apply in Wales and Scotland?
No. Wales has its own fees ban with a £1,000 fixed penalty and no prescribed cap on the security deposit, and Scotland outlawed tenant premiums decades before England did.
Wales
The Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Act 2019 has applied since 1 September 2019 and uses the same closed-list approach. Holding deposits are capped at one week’s rent, and the permitted list adds green deal charges and service charges for community landlords.
The security deposit cap is left to regulations that have not been made, so the five and six week limits do not apply in Wales. A breach draws a fixed penalty notice of £1,000 or a prosecution.
Scotland
Section 82 of the Rent (Scotland) Act 1984 makes it an offence to require or receive a premium for granting, renewing or continuing a tenancy. The Private Rented Housing (Scotland) Act 2011 closed the loophole that agents had been using from 30 November 2012.
Anything beyond rent and a deposit is illegal, and the deposit is capped at two months’ rent. A conviction carries a fine at level 3 on the standard scale and the court can order the premium repaid.
| England | Wales | Scotland | |
| Governing law | Tenant Fees Act 2019 | Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Act 2019 | Rent (Scotland) Act 1984, s.82 |
| In force since | 1 June 2019 for new tenancies, 1 June 2020 for all | 1 September 2019 | 1984, tightened 30 November 2012 |
| Holding deposit | 1 week’s rent | 1 week’s rent | Not permitted |
| Deposit cap | 5 or 6 weeks’ rent | No cap prescribed | 2 months’ rent |
| First penalty | Up to £5,000 civil penalty | £1,000 fixed penalty | Fine at level 3 on conviction |
| Repeat breach | Up to £30,000 or prosecution | Prosecution | Prosecution and repayment order |
Landlords with property either side of a border need two fee schedules, not one. The insurance question is the same in all three nations, and our guide on what landlord insurance is sets out what a policy actually does.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
No. Guarantor referencing is your cost in exactly the same way as tenant referencing, and you cannot bill it to the guarantor either.
Not since 1 May 2026. You can require the first rent period once the agreement is signed, and nothing before signing at all.
No. The five or six week cap covers every deposit you hold, so a pet deposit has to fit inside it rather than sit on top.
Yes, up to £50, or your reasonable costs if they are higher and you can produce a costed breakdown. Most straight swaps cost far less than £50 to process.
No. The only late rent charge permitted is interest at 3% above the Bank of England base rate once the rent is more than 14 days overdue.
You have to refuse it. Accepting an offer above the stated rent breaches section 56 of the Renters’ Rights Act and risks a penalty of up to £7,000.
No. A letting to a company is not an assured tenancy, so the fee ban and the deposit caps do not apply to it.
Yes, withdrawal is one of the four permitted grounds. You still have to put your reasons in writing to the tenant within 7 days.
Yes. The caps have applied to every existing tenancy since 1 June 2020, so the excess is a prohibited payment you are holding today.
No. Sections 1 and 2 of the Act bind landlords and agents alike, and both of you can be penalised for the same charge.
Not as a separate charge. It is a business cost you price into the rent, along with your safety certificates and any licensing fee.
Repay it in full, in writing, before the tenant or the council raises it. Voluntary repayment does not erase the breach but it strongly influences the penalty a council sets.