Tenant Fees Act 2019

The TFA 2019 dramatically simplified the cost of renting. Banned: agency fees, inventory fees, reference fees, professional cleaning fees, check-in/check-out fees, pet fees as extra charges. Trading Standards enforces the ban with fines of £5,000 for first offence and unlimited for repeat. Tenants can claim back unlawful fees. The Act applies to assured shorthold tenancies, licences to occupy, and student accommodation tenancies.

In practice, the Act works by reversing the default: instead of listing what agents may not charge, it lists the only payments that are permitted and treats everything else as a prohibited payment. So the right question when you are handed an invoice is not whether the charge sounds reasonable but whether it appears on the permitted list. If it does not, it cannot be charged, however it is labelled.

Worked example: Josh is asked for £180 for referencing and £120 for an inventory check before moving in, plus a £250 holding deposit. The referencing and inventory charges are prohibited payments and he does not have to pay them. The holding deposit is permitted but capped at one week's rent, and his weekly rent is £185 — so £65 of it is unlawful. He writes to the agent citing the Act, asks for repayment within 14 days, and copies in the landlord. When the agent refuses, he reports it to his local Trading Standards team, which can issue a financial penalty, and applies to the First-tier Tribunal for an order requiring repayment.

The traps are worth knowing. A holding deposit must normally be repaid or applied to the rent within 15 days unless you withdraw, fail a right to rent check, or give false information — and the landlord must tell you in writing why it is being kept. Default fees for a lost key or late rent are permitted only if the tenancy agreement provides for them, the loss is genuinely incurred, and it is evidenced; late rent interest is capped and only chargeable once payment is 14 days overdue. Agents sometimes rebrand a banned fee as an optional service or a pet fee — the label does not save it, though a landlord may lawfully charge a higher rent instead. And a landlord holding an unlawfully charged payment cannot rely on some possession routes until it is repaid.

The Act sits directly alongside deposit protection, applies to every assured shorthold tenancy, and was reinforced by the Renters' Rights Act 2025, which capped rent in advance and banned bidding. Read our guides to the Tenant Fees Act and tenancy agreements before you pay anything.