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The Tenant Fees Act 2019 turned tenant charging on its head. Before it, landlords and agents could bill tenants for referencing, admin, inventories, renewals and a long list of extras. Since 1 June 2019 (and for all tenancies from 1 June 2020) the rule is the opposite: every payment a tenant makes is banned unless it appears on a short, closed list of "permitted payments". The mindset to adopt is simple — if a charge is not expressly permitted, it is prohibited. This checker runs a charge against that list and tells you whether you can lawfully ask for it.

The permitted payments are: rent; a refundable tenancy deposit; a refundable holding deposit; payments in the event of a default; payments to vary, assign or end a tenancy at the tenant’s request; and council tax, utilities, TV licence and communication services where the agreement requires them. Each carries conditions. The tenancy deposit is capped at five weeks’ rent where the annual rent is under £50,000, and six weeks’ rent at or above that figure. The holding deposit — taken to reserve a property while checks are done — is capped at one week’s rent and must be returned or applied to the rent or deposit within strict deadlines.

Default fees are where landlords most often slip into illegality without realising. You cannot levy a flat "late payment" charge. The only permitted charge for late rent is interest at up to 3% above the Bank of England base rate, and only once the rent is more than 14 days overdue. The only other default payment is the reasonable, evidenced cost of replacing a lost key or security device — with a receipt, no admin mark-up. A "£50 late fee" or a "£25 lost key admin charge" with no invoice are both prohibited payments, however reasonable they feel.

The banned list is long and catches things that used to be standard. Referencing and credit-check fees, application and admin fees, inventory and check-in fees, check-out fees, renewal fees, guarantor fees, and professional-cleaning charges are all prohibited. Cleaning deserves a special mention because it trips up so many landlords: you cannot require professional cleaning as a fee or a tenancy condition. You can only recover cleaning costs as a deduction from the deposit, and only for actual, evidenced uncleanliness measured against the move-in inventory — not as a routine end-of-tenancy charge.

The penalties are designed to bite. A first breach is a civil offence with a financial penalty of up to £5,000. A further breach within five years can be treated as a criminal offence or attract a penalty of up to £30,000, and can lead to a banning order. On top of the penalty, any prohibited payment you have taken must be repaid to the tenant, and historically an unlawfully retained fee blocked a landlord’s ability to use the no-fault possession route until it was returned. The cost of a single wrong charge therefore vastly outweighs the fee itself.

Good practice is to bake the rules into your process rather than checking case by case under pressure. Set the deposit at the correct five or six weeks for the rent; take a holding deposit only within the one-week cap and account for it on time; never itemise an "admin" or "referencing" line on a tenant invoice; and handle cleaning and damage strictly through the protected deposit with inventory evidence. Where a tenant asks to change or leave the tenancy early, charge only the £50 cap (or your genuine evidenced costs) and your actual loss — nothing more.