Tenant Fees Act 2019

Tenant Fees Act 2019 summary

The Tenant Fees Act 2019 was implemented on June 1st 2020 and aims to reduce the costs a tenant can occur throughout their tenancy. The act was put in place to ban almost all tenant fees while also capping the amount paid as a tenancy deposit by the tenant in the private rented sector within England. This applies to shorthold tenancies granted by private landlords, licence agreements and tenancies of student accommodation. Going forward, neither a tenant or guarantor is required to make a payment unless it has been overtly ‘permitted’ under the Tenant Fees Act 2019. 

Prior to the act, the amount a landlord could request as a security or holding deposit for rent was uncapped. This has now been reviewed with the security deposit being limited to 5 weeks’ rent, or 6 weeks’ if the annual rent is £50,000. We have taken the necessary steps to ensure landlords that have taken out our full management service are fully compliant, for full details on The Tenant Fees Act 2019 please visit https://bit.ly/30ZvkpX 

Why is it important to me now?

On the 1st of this month the transitional period for the Tenant Fees Act 2019 ended, and with it came some more adjustments. Since June 1st 2019, the Act has only applied to tenancy renewals and agreements on or after this date. As of this month the Act applies to all relevant tenancies in place, including those entered or renewed prior to June 1st 2019.

You do not need to act on this yourself, we ensure all agreements are made legal to the standards required. Here the Tenancy Deposit Scheme clearly lays out the differences between the ‘transitional period’ and ‘post transitional period’ however, below we have outlined the only permitted charges for new and existing tenancies moving forward:

• Rent, inclusive of additional pet charges.

• No more than 5 weeks’ rent for tenancy deposit.

• Holding deposit which is 1 week’s rent.

• Early termination of tenancy charge – our re-let charge is £660

• Charge for novation/variation to a tenancy – capped at £50.

• A late rental payment can still incur charge but is limited to no more than 3% above the Bank of England Base Rate and only chargeable after 14 days of non-payment of rent.

• Charge for lost key/security devices – this will vary depending on cost for replacement.