You've found a flat, you're ready to sign, and the agent sends a list. £250 for referencing, £90 admin, £60 for the inventory. Or you're already living there and a 'renewal fee' has just landed for staying put. It all looks official. Most of it is not legal.
Since the Tenant Fees Act 2019, the list of payments a landlord or letting agent in England can ask you for is short and fixed. Almost everything else is a prohibited payment, which means you do not have to pay it, and if you already have, you can get it back.
What fees can a landlord legally charge in England?
The Tenant Fees Act 2019 replaced the old free-for-all with a closed list. A landlord or agent can only require these payments:
- Rent. Since 1 May 2026 a landlord cannot require any rent in advance before you sign, and no more than one month ahead once the tenancy is running. If you were asked for six months upfront, the one-month rent-in-advance rule covers it.
- A tenancy deposit, capped at 5 weeks' rent where your annual rent is under £50,000, or 6 weeks' rent if it is £50,000 or more.
- A holding deposit to reserve the property, capped at one week's rent. What a landlord can keep from a holding deposit is its own question.
- A payment to change the tenancy if you ask for it, say to add a housemate, capped at £50 unless the landlord shows it genuinely cost more.
- A payment to leave early if you ask to end the tenancy early, capped at what the landlord loses as a result.
- Default fees, meaning a charge for late rent once it is at least 14 days overdue (interest capped at 3% above the Bank of England base rate) or a lost key or security device (the real cost, backed by evidence).
- Bills such as utilities, council tax, a TV licence, and communication services like broadband or a landline, where your agreement makes you responsible for them.
That is the whole list. If a charge is not on it, it is banned.
Which fees can't your landlord or letting agent charge you?
Everything outside that list is a prohibited payment. Tenants are still charged these most often.
- Referencing and credit-check fees
- Administration or 'admin' fees for drawing up the tenancy
- Renewal fees for signing up to another term
- Check-in, check-out, and inventory fees
- Compulsory professional cleaning as a condition of the tenancy
- Guarantor fees
- Charges for a 'deposit replacement' product you did not choose
None of these is permitted, so requiring one is unlawful, whoever asks and however the invoice is labelled. Calling an admin fee a 'processing charge' does not make it legal.
Whether a fee clause buried in your contract can bind you is a different question, and the answer is usually no. Which tenancy agreement clauses are unenforceable covers that side of it.
What to do if you're asked to pay a referencing, admin or inventory fee
You do not have to pay it. A prohibited payment is unlawful to require, so you can say no and ask the landlord or agent to point to where the charge sits on the permitted list. They will not be able to.
If you have not signed yet, be clear about what the Act does and does not give you. Nothing in it forces a landlord to go ahead with the letting, so one who is refused a banned fee can still walk away. What they cannot do is keep your holding deposit. If the landlord pulls out it comes back within 7 days, and having demanded a prohibited payment strips them of the grounds that would otherwise let them keep it.
Mandatory cleaning at the end follows the same logic. A landlord can deduct from your deposit for real damage or for cleaning you agreed to, but a flat 'professional cleaning fee' demanded because the tenancy is ending is not a permitted payment. Whether a landlord can charge cleaning fees at the end of a tenancy goes into detail.
How to get an unlawful tenant fee refunded
If you have already paid a banned fee, you can reclaim it. Work through it in order:
- Ask in writing. Email the landlord or agent, name the payment, say it is a prohibited payment under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, and ask for it back by a set date. Keep the reply, or the silence.
- Use the agent's redress scheme. Every letting agent has to belong to a government-approved redress scheme. If an agent charged the fee and won't refund it, you can complain to their scheme for free.
- Report it to the council. Trading standards at your local council enforce the Act. They can order the fee repaid and fine the landlord or agent.
- Apply to the First-tier Tribunal. You can ask the tribunal to order repayment directly. If it orders repayment, the landlord or agent has 7 to 14 days to pay.
Some of these run together and some do not. Asking in writing, complaining to the redress scheme and reporting the charge to the council can all happen at once. The tribunal is the exception. You cannot apply to it for a fee the council has already ordered repaid, or one that has become a prosecution, so for the same payment it is the council or the tribunal, not both.
What penalty does a landlord face for charging a banned fee?
The penalties are real, which is why most landlords back down once you cite the Act. A first breach carries a civil penalty of up to £5,000. A repeat breach within five years is a criminal offence. The council can impose a financial penalty of up to £30,000 instead of prosecuting, and a prosecution can carry an unlimited fine and leave the landlord facing a banning order.
The money was never lawfully theirs to take, and the law gives you a clear route to get it back.
If you have been charged something that does not look right, Remedy can check the payment against the permitted list and draft the letter that gets it refunded. It takes a couple of minutes.
