Manage a rental propertywithout a letting agent,and keep the fee.
Do the agent’s jobs from your phone, and the rent stays yours. Book the viewings, get the tenancy signed, collect the rent by Direct Debit and send repairs to your own contractor, from one login, with no commission taken on the rent.
To manage a rental property without a letting agent, you do the jobs an agent is paid for: find and check the tenant, sign the tenancy, collect the rent, deal with repairs and keep the home legal to let. LetCompliance runs those jobs from one login on your phone, from £7.99 a month, where full management costs 12% to 21.6% of the rent on agents’ own lists.
The tenant found, with no tenant-find fee.
The advert is a page and link of your own, not a Rightmove or Zoopla listing. Share the link and every application lands in one list, with each applicant’s income and move date. Invite the ones you like to a viewing, the applicant confirms by email, and a reminder goes to you both on the day.
Sample account with made-up details, 16 and 18 Oct 2026
The tenancy signed on the tenant’s phone.
The agreement is drawn up from your records as the periodic tenancy the law now expects, sent to sign online, and kept for you both with the time it was opened and the time it was signed.
Sample account with made-up details, 16 and 18 Oct 2026
The rent in your own account, with no commission.
Your tenant agrees a Direct Debit once from a link. Each collection starts on the rent day, Bacs confirms it about three working days later, and Stripe then pays it into your bank on your payout schedule. A tenant who pays by transfer tells you from their portal and you confirm it. Each month is recorded against the tenancy with its receipt.
Sample account with made-up details, 16 and 17 Oct 2026
A repair sent to your own contractor.
Your tenant reports it from their phone with photos. You see it in the tenant inbox, send it to your contractor with a note, and your tenant hears that it is in hand, with no call to an agent in between.
In the background: the gas safety, EICR and EPC dates read from your certificates with a reminder before each, the deposit’s 30 days, the Right to Rent record, and the Section 8 and Section 13 notices on paid plans. How compliance is kept
Sample account with made-up details, 17 and 18 Oct 2026
From £7.99 a month, not 12% of your rent.
Single is £7.99 a month for one home, Solo £14.99 for up to three and Portfolio £19 for up to ten, with Direct Debit rent and Making Tax Digital on each.
Full management costs 12% to 21.6% of the rent on agents’ own lists: £1,728 to £3,110.40 a year on a rent of £1,200 a month.
£1,728£3,110.40
£95.88
Running that let yourself on LetCompliance costs£95.88a year.
Billed yearly, the Single plan is £63.92.
An agent also goes to the viewings and visits the property for you.
How to manage a rental property without a letting agent
To manage a rental property in England without an agent, do the agent’s jobs in order. Get the gas safety check, the electrical report, the alarms, the EPC and any licence before you advertise. Advertise at a fixed rent and check every adult’s right to rent. Give the written terms before the tenancy starts and protect the deposit within 30 days. Then collect the rent, do the repairs, renew the certificates on time, and end a tenancy only with a Section 8 notice on a legal ground.
A letting agent does five jobs: gets the property ready, finds the tenant, sets up the tenancy, runs it and ends it. Each has legal steps with deadlines, several of them new under the Renters’ Rights Act. Here they are in order, with the law behind each one.
Before you advertise
The property has to be safe and legal to let before anyone views it. These are the checks an agent would ask you for first.
Book the gas safety check
A Gas Safe registered engineer checks every gas appliance and flue, and you need a check from the 12 months before the tenancy starts. Then it is every 12 months.
An electrical inspection report (EICR) before the tenancy starts, then at least every 5 years, or sooner if the report says so. Remedial work it asks for has to be done within 28 days, or any shorter period the report gives.
A smoke alarm on every storey with living space, and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker, such as a boiler or a wood burner.
A house shared by five or more people from two or more households needs an HMO licence from the council. Some councils also license smaller shared houses, or every let in an area, so check the council’s own page.
Refusing or discouraging someone because they have children or receive benefits is unlawful, with a penalty of up to £7,000. You can still check that the rent is affordable.
Before the tenancy starts, check that every adult who will live there can legally rent in England, whether or not they are named on the agreement. For someone with time-limited permission, do it in the 28 days before the start.
In LetCompliance: Applications, viewings and references sit in one place, a reference is billed to you, never the tenant, and the Right to Rent check is recorded against each tenant.
Setting up the tenancy
Most of the deadlines a self-managing landlord can miss are in the first month. Each one below runs from a date you can write down.
Give the written terms before the tenancy starts
Since 1 May 2026 assured tenancies in England roll on with no end date (periodic tenancies), and the tenant must have a written statement of the terms before the tenancy is entered into. The penalty for not giving it is up to £7,000.
No rent before the tenancy is signed, and only the first rent period can fall due before it starts. The deposit is capped at 5 weeks’ rent, or 6 weeks where the annual rent is £50,000 or more.
Test the alarms on the day the tenancy begins, and make a room-by-room inventory with dated photos. If there is ever a deposit dispute, this is the evidence the scheme looks at.
In LetCompliance: The agreement is drawn up as a periodic tenancy and signed online, and the deposit’s 30 days are counted with a reminder 14, 7 and 1 days before the deadline; the deposit protection deadline calculator counts them by hand. Inventories are on every paid plan, from £7.99 a month.
Running the let
This is what full management pays for, month after month. Most of it is small, and all of it has a date.
Collect the rent and keep the record
Know on the due date whether the rent has arrived, and keep a ledger of every payment and every missed one. If you ever need possession for arrears, the grounds are counted in rent owed, and that ledger is your evidence.
The structure and outside, the water, gas, electricity and sanitation, and the heating and hot water are yours to keep in repair. To inspect, give 24 hours’ notice in writing and visit at a reasonable time.
The gas check every 12 months, with a copy of the record to the tenant within 28 days. The electrical inspection at least every 5 years, with a copy of the report within 28 days.
The new register opens on 15 December 2026, and every let property in England must be on it by its region’s deadline, the last on 14 November 2027, at £65 a year for each property.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies from 6 April 2026 if your qualifying income was over £50,000 in 2024 to 2025, from 6 April 2027 if it was over £30,000 in 2025 to 2026 and from 6 April 2028 if it was over £20,000 in 2026 to 2027: quarterly updates to HMRC from software.
In LetCompliance: Rent by Direct Debit with no commission, late rent chased once you switch it on, repairs sent to your own contractor, and the Section 13 notice and the Making Tax Digital updates worked out from the same records.
Ending the tenancy
Section 21 ended for private tenancies on 1 May 2026. A landlord who wants the property back needs a legal reason, called a ground, and the right notice.
Use a Section 8 notice on Form 3A
Possession starts with a notice seeking possession (Section 8) on Form 3A, naming the ground. If the tenant does not leave, a court decides.
For rent arrears (Ground 8), at least three months’ rent must be owed, and the notice is four weeks. To sell (Ground 1A) or move in (Ground 1), the notice is four months.
Agree any deductions with the tenant and return the rest through the scheme. If you cannot agree, the scheme’s dispute service decides, from the inventory, the photos and the record.
In LetCompliance: Section 8 notices on Form 3A work out the arrears for you, and a tracker follows the claim to the order. The deposit dispute pack is on every paid plan.
Sample account with made-up details, 18 Oct 2026
What it costs to run a let without an agent
An agent charges a percentage of the rent: full management is 12% to 21.6% on agents’ own published lists, VAT included, £1,728 to £3,110.40 a year on £1,200 a month. The letting agent fees guide has every fee and a calculator for your own rent.
A letting agent
What it costs
12% to 21.6% of the rent
The rent
Collected by the agent and paid to you less its fee
Viewings and visits
The agent goes for you
A spreadsheet
What it costs
Nothing
The rent
Whatever you set up with your bank, checked by hand
Viewings and visits
You, with your own reminders
LetCompliance
What it costs
From £7.99 a month for one property
The rent
By Direct Debit into your own account, with no commission
Viewings and visits
You, with each household sent written notice
If you already have an agent and are ready to go, leaving your letting agent takes you through the notice your contract asks for and the handover. If you cannot answer a repair call or reach the property, a partial service can still make sense. Tenant-find covers stage 2 and part of stage 3, and you run the let from there. The letting agent or self-manage comparison weighs the choice, and the PRS Database guide covers registering each property.
This page covers England. It is general information, not legal advice. Law checked 26 October 2026.
What landlords without an agent ask
About self-managing a let, what it costs and what changes on the day you take it over. Something else? Ask a question
Can I manage my rental property myself without a letting agent?
Yes. There is no qualification needed to let your own property in England. What the law asks for is the steps on this page: safe and certified before the tenancy, the right checks and written terms at the start, repairs and renewals during it, and a legal ground to end it. Some councils also require a property licence, and every let property will need an entry on the PRS Database by its region’s deadline, at £65 a year.
Do I need a letting agent to rent out my house?
No. A letting agent is a choice, not a legal requirement, and you can advertise, reference, sign and run the tenancy yourself. Handing the work to an agent does not hand over the responsibility: the landlord still answers for a safe home and a protected deposit. An agent earns its fee where you cannot reach the property or answer a repair call, for the viewings and the visits.
What does a letting agent do that I would have to do myself?
Five jobs. Get the property safe and legal to let, find and check the tenant, set up the tenancy (written terms, deposit, certificates, inventory), run it (rent, repairs, renewals, rent increases, requests) and end it with the right notice. Tenant-find only covers the second and part of the third; full management covers all five.
Is it cheaper to manage the property myself?
On the fee, almost always. Full management costs 12% to 21.6% of the rent on agents’ own published lists, VAT included: £1,728 to £3,110.40 a year on a £1,200 rent. Running it yourself in LetCompliance is £95.88 a year at £7.99 a month for one property, with the rent collected by Direct Debit and no commission. Stripe’s fee for that Direct Debit comes on top: £48 a year on a £1,200 monthly rent with no disputes. What you take on instead is the time and the deadlines on this page, and the visits an agent would make.
How do I find a tenant without a letting agent?
Advertise at a fixed rent, take applications, show the home, then reference the applicant you choose and check their right to rent before the tenancy starts. In LetCompliance the advert has its own listing page, applications land in one list, each viewing is booked with a reminder, and a full reference is £24.99, billed to you, never the tenant.
How do I collect rent without a letting agent?
Into your own bank account, by Direct Debit, standing order or bank transfer. LetCompliance sends your tenant a Direct Debit link they agree once, and the rent is collected on each rent day. No commission is taken on the rent. Stripe charges 1% of each Direct Debit payment with a 20p minimum and a £4 cap, and £5 for a disputed payment. Every payment and every missed one is recorded on the tenancy.
What happens if I miss the 30-day deposit deadline?
The tenant can apply to court, which must order you to pay them between one and three times the deposit. And until the deposit is protected and the prescribed information given, a court cannot make a possession order on most grounds.
How do I evict a tenant without an agent now Section 21 has gone?
With a Section 8 notice on Form 3A, naming a ground in Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988 and giving the notice that ground needs: four weeks for three months’ rent arrears (Ground 8), four months to sell (Ground 1A) or move in (Ground 1). If the tenant does not leave, you apply to court.
How often can I put the rent up?
At most once every 52 weeks, with a rent increase notice (Section 13) on Form 4A giving at least two months’ notice. A clause in the tenancy agreement that sets its own increases has no effect. The tenant can ask the First-tier Tribunal to decide the rent.
Can I stop using my letting agent and manage the tenancy myself?
Yes, once you have given the notice your agreement with the agent asks for. Ask the agent for the tenancy agreement, the certificates, the inventory, the rent record and the deposit’s scheme and reference, and ask the scheme how the deposit moves to you. Then give your tenant, in writing, an address in England or Wales for notices: rent is treated as not due until a landlord has given one (Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, section 48).
How much does it cost to self-manage with LetCompliance?
Single is £7.99 a month for one property, Solo £14.99 for up to three and Portfolio £19 for up to ten, with no commission on the rent. The free plan is £0 for one property and keeps rent tracked on the tenancy with receipts, the tenant portal with repairs, the certificate dates with email reminders and the 0 to 100 compliance score. Making Tax Digital and Direct Debit collection need Single.
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