The Tenant Fee Act 2019
From 1st June 2019 letting agents in England will only be able to make permitted payments to tenants.
Permitted payments as defined under the legislation only include the following:
- The rent.
- Refundable tenancy deposit – capped at no more than five week’s rent where the annual rent is less than £50,000 or 6 weeks’ where the total rent is £50,000 or above.
- Refundable holding deposit – capped at no more than one week’s rent.
- Payments to change the tenancy – where requested by the tenant capped at £50.00 inc vat
- Payments associated with early termination of the tenancy – where requested by the tenant.
This must not exceed the financial loss that a landlord may suffer, or reasonable costs that have been incurred by the landlord’s agent resulting from an agreement for the tenant to leave early.
- Payments for utilities, communication services, TV licence and Council Tax.
- Default fee for late payment of rent and replacement of lost key/security devices, where required, under a tenancy agreement – default fees can only apply when this has been written into the tenancy agreement and covers late payment of rent, a lost key or security device. The amount of default fee is limited to 3% over the Bank of England base rate for each date that the payment is outstanding and applies to rent which is more than 14 days overdue.
Tenant Protection
Irwin Fishers is a member of CMP – Client Money Protect which is a client money protection scheme, and also a member of TPO, which is a redress scheme.
