For landlords

How do landlords check a tenant can afford the rent in England?

Guide · about 14 min read · Covers the law in England as at October 2026 · Reviewed on 23 October 2026

In England, landlords usually check that a tenant can afford the rent by looking at evidence of income: recent payslips, an employment contract, bank statements, accounts for the self employed, or a summary of bank data the renter has agreed to share through Open Banking. Many hand this to a referencing agency. A figure some referencing firms and letting agents publish, an annual income of about 30 times the monthly rent, is a market convention rather than law.

What the law does set is the frame around the check. On most private lettings in England the tenant cannot be charged for it. For assured tenancies, which cover most private renting in England, rent cannot be required before the tenancy is entered into. A landlord also cannot turn people away for having children or receiving benefits, subject to narrow exceptions, although income can still be taken into account.

This guide covers private renting in England only. It is written for landlords, and renters will find the same rules from the other side of the table.

What do landlords usually ask for to show a tenant can pay the rent?

Landlords and agents commonly ask for a short bundle of documents. None of it is a list set by law. It is common practice, and the documents below are typical examples rather than a fixed set.

Evidence	What it usually shows	Often asked of
Payslips, commonly the last three months	A regular salary and its amount	Employed renters
Employment contract or offer letter	Salary and start date where payslips are new or missing	People starting a job or moving for work
Bank statements	Income arriving and rent or bills already being paid	Most renters
Accounts or an HMRC tax calculation	Earnings across a full year	Self employed renters
Pension or benefit award letter	The amount and how often it is paid	Retired renters and benefits claimants
Savings statement	Funds held, where income alone is low	Students, retired renters, people between jobs
A guarantor's own evidence	That the guarantor could cover the rent	Renters with little UK income history

What a landlord is looking for is simple. Does money arrive regularly, and is it enough to cover the rent with something left over? The government's guidance on rental discrimination says landlords should set the same income requirement for all prospective tenants and treat all forms of income equally, including benefits and pensions. The same guidance says landlords should not unreasonably refuse a means of evidencing income that a tenant provides, whether a bank statement, a benefit letter or a payslip. Applying one rule to everyone is not the end of the question, though, because a rule applied equally can still be indirect discrimination, as the section on discrimination below explains.

Checking that someone can pay is separate from the Right to Rent check. Right to Rent is the landlord's own legal duty, and GOV.UK explains how landlords carry it out.

How does Open Banking work when you rent a home?

Open Banking lets a person give a company read only access to their bank account data online. The company must be authorised or registered by the Financial Conduct Authority to provide account information services. The renter connects their own account. The provider then reads the transactions for a set period and produces a summary of income and regular outgoings for the landlord or agent.

The rules sit in the Payment Services Regulations 2017, which call this an account information service. The regulations define it as an online service that provides consolidated information on a person's payment accounts. It reads data, and it is not a service that moves money. Regulation 70(3)(a) says the provider must not provide the service without the account holder's explicit consent.

Some referencing firms and letting agents offer it as an alternative to collecting paper statements. Because it depends on consent, it works best as one option among several. The government's rental discrimination guidance, linked above, says landlords should not unreasonably refuse a means of evidencing income that a tenant provides. There is also a Tenant Fees Act point. Section 1(3) says a landlord must not require a tenant to enter into a contract with a third party for a service, subject to exceptions for utilities and communication services. Where using Open Banking means the renter agreeing to a provider's terms, making it the only accepted route risks breaching that rule, so it belongs as an option the renter can choose rather than a condition. A renter who would rather not connect their account can offer statements or payslips instead.

The provider's consent is also separate from the landlord's own data protection duties. Whoever receives the summary is responsible for handling it lawfully, which the section on financial information below covers.

What is the rent to income ratio in the UK?

There is no rent to income ratio in law. Some referencing firms and letting agents publish their own guide figure, and one that appears in published criteria is an annual gross income of about 30 times the monthly rent. That is the same as two and a half times the annual rent. Where a guarantor is needed, some firms quote a higher figure for the guarantor, such as 36 times the monthly rent. Thresholds differ from firm to firm, so these numbers are examples of the convention, not a standard.

Monthly rent	Tenant income at 30 times	Guarantor income at 36 times
£800	£24,000 a year	£28,800 a year
£1,000	£30,000 a year	£36,000 a year
£1,250	£37,500 a year	£45,000 a year
£1,500	£45,000 a year	£54,000 a year

The table is arithmetic on the convention, not a legal threshold, and VEYLO X does not apply this or any threshold. The multiple is measured before tax and says nothing about a person's other outgoings, which is why some firms look at bank data as well. Some firms add joint tenants' incomes together, and some accept savings in place of part of the income. Each landlord or agent sets their own level, within the discrimination rules below, and the Renters' Rights Act 2025, section 41, says nothing in its anti-discrimination chapter prohibits taking a person's income into account when considering whether they could pay the rent.

Who pays for referencing and income checks in England?

On most private lettings, the landlord or the agent does. The Tenant Fees Act 2019, section 28, defines the tenancies it covers: assured tenancies other than social housing, certain student lettings, and licences to occupy housing. Under section 3 of the Tenant Fees Act 2019, a payment is prohibited unless Schedule 1 to the Act makes it a permitted payment. Referencing and credit check fees are not on that list.

Section 1 of the Act says a landlord must not require a tenant to make a prohibited payment in connection with a tenancy of housing in England. The same section says a landlord must not require a tenant to enter into a contract with a third party for a service, with exceptions for utilities and communication services. So a landlord cannot pass the cost on by asking the renter to buy their own report.

Section 6 puts the duty to enforce these rules on every local weights and measures authority in England, which in practice means trading standards at the council. Our guide to whether a landlord can charge for referencing covers this from the renter's side, and how long tenant referencing takes in England sets out the usual timings.

Can a landlord ask for rent in advance instead of checking income?

Not in the way it used to be done. Asking for six or twelve months' rent up front was once a common workaround where income looked thin. For tenancy agreements signed on or after 1 May 2026, it no longer fits the rules for assured tenancies in England. The government's guidance on asking for rent in advance says the rules do not apply to tenancy agreements signed, or rent in advance paid, before that date. It also describes different treatment where a local authority pays rent for a household, including tenancies arranged to meet a homelessness duty, so what follows is about rent required of the tenant on an ordinary private letting.

Before signing: section 9 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 amends the Tenant Fees Act so that rent payable before an assured tenancy is entered into is a prohibited payment. The same section says a landlord must not invite, encourage or accept a prohibited pre-tenancy payment of rent. The guidance gives the example of a tenant who offers six months' rent to secure a home before signing, and says accepting it is a breach. A holding deposit and a tenancy deposit are separate, and can still be asked for within their caps.

Between signing and the start date: section 8 allows initial rent to fall due in that window. The guidance explains this as the first month's rent where rent is paid monthly, or up to the first 28 days' rent where it is paid more often, such as weekly.

Once the tenancy has started: section 8 says terms of an assured tenancy are of no effect so far as they make rent due before the rent period it pays for. A landlord cannot require rent before the due date in the agreement. The guidance adds that a tenant may still choose to pay early, and a landlord can accept that, so the line is between requiring payment and receiving a payment the tenant volunteers once the tenancy has begun.

Where a landlord has doubts about income, the usual alternatives are a guarantor or evidence of savings. Other evidence the renter offers still deserves consideration, and the government's guidance treats a guarantor demanded in practice only of benefits claimants as discrimination. Our guide to whether you need a guarantor to rent in England covers how that works.

Can a landlord refuse a tenant who has children or receives benefits?

Not on that basis. The rules cover private lettings on assured tenancies, and the government's guidance says they also extend to the older regulated tenancies, but not to social or supported housing. Section 33 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 says a landlord, or anyone acting for them, must not prevent a person enquiring about, viewing or renting a home because a child would live with or visit them there. It also bans applying a provision, criterion or practice designed to make those people less likely to rent. There is a defence where the landlord can show the conduct is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, and a narrow exception for certain insurance terms. The government's rental discrimination guidance, linked above, says that insurance exception covers only an insurance contract signed before 1 May 2026, and ends when that insurance is renewed or ends.

Section 34 applies the same prohibition to people who are or may be benefits claimants, with only the insurance exception. A blanket "no benefits" rule in an advert or a policy is the kind of criterion it is aimed at.

The Act keeps the money question open. Section 41, linked above, allows income to be taken into account when considering whether a person could pay the rent. The guidance treats it as a question of amount, not source: benefit income should be counted on the same footing as wages. Its examples of breaches include a referencing request that ignored benefit income, and a guarantor required in practice only of a benefits claimant. The guidance also treats a referencing service as someone acting on the landlord's behalf. Under section 40, a local housing authority may impose a financial penalty of up to £7,000 for a breach.

The Equality Act 2010, section 33, also applies when a home is let. It says a person with the right to dispose of premises must not discriminate as to the terms offered or by not letting to someone. Section 19 covers indirect discrimination, where a criterion puts people who share a protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage and cannot be shown to be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. Whether a particular rule crosses that line in an individual case is for a court, tribunal or regulator to decide. Our guide to what landlords can and cannot ask for when you rent covers the wider picture.

How much financial information can a landlord ask for and keep?

Only what the purpose needs. Under Article 5(1)(c) of the UK GDPR, personal data must be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the purpose it is used for. The Information Commissioner's Office puts it plainly: identify the minimum amount of personal data you need, and hold that much but no more. Article 5(1)(e) adds that data must not be kept in identifiable form for longer than is necessary.

Quantity is only part of it. Article 6 says processing is lawful only where one of its listed grounds applies, such as processing that is necessary to take steps at the person's request before entering into a contract. Under Article 13, a controller collecting data from the person must give them a list of information at the time, which includes, among other things, who the controller is, why the data is used and on what legal basis. Article 14 sets out the information duties where the data comes from someone else, such as a referencing firm, or a guarantor whose details are passed on by the renter. Subject to the exceptions in that Article, the information is due within a reasonable period and at the latest within one month, or earlier if the data is used to contact the person or disclosed to someone else. These duties fall on the controller, the organisation that decides why and how the data is used. A referencing firm may act for the landlord or as a controller in its own right, and a landlord who receives a report can have obligations of their own, so a referencing firm's privacy notice does not automatically cover the landlord. Either way, a renter should not have to ask for this information.

Some documents carry more than income. A benefit award letter or a bank statement can reveal health information, which is one of the special categories of data in Article 9. Processing those categories is prohibited unless one of the conditions in that Article applies, in addition to an Article 6 basis. A renter being willing to hand a document over does not settle that on its own. To answer whether the rent can be paid, a landlord usually needs the amount and how often it is paid, not the type of benefit or any medical detail, so asking for those details to be blacked out is the safer course.

For a landlord, that usually means a few things in practice. Seeing every transaction on a renter's statement is rarely needed to answer whether the rent can be paid. Accepting statements with unrelated spending blacked out is a reasonable approach. A guarantor's financial details deserve the same care as the renter's. Documents from applicants who do not go on to rent the home should not be kept longer than needed. The ICO's guidance is the place to check the detail for your own situation.

Does VEYLO X check whether a tenant can afford the rent?

No. VEYLO X is a software platform for renting and letting in England. It does not check anyone's income, does not run referencing, credit checks or Open Banking, and does not assess, rank or decide on any renter. Any check of whether a tenant can pay stays with the landlord, or with the referencing firm the landlord chooses and pays for, under the rules above. What renters can do on VEYLO X is write their own renter profile once, reuse it with different landlords, and decide when to share it. The profile is the renter's own account of themselves. It is not a substitute for the evidence of income a landlord asks for, and our guide to sharing a renter profile with a landlord explains how it works.

Common questions

The short answers, in one place.

Is there a legal minimum income to rent a home in England?

No. No statute in England sets a minimum income for renting, or a rent to income ratio. The figure some referencing firms and letting agents publish, an annual income of about 30 times the monthly rent, and sometimes 36 times for a guarantor, is a market convention. Each landlord or agent sets its own threshold, and government guidance says it should be the same for all prospective tenants, with all forms of income, including benefits, treated equally. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 confirms that a person's income can be taken into account when considering whether they could pay the rent.

Can a tenant refuse Open Banking and send bank statements instead?

Open Banking only works with the account holder's consent. Under the Payment Services Regulations 2017, an account information service provider must not provide the service without the account holder's explicit consent. A renter who would rather not connect their bank account can ask whether statements, payslips or other evidence would be accepted instead. Government guidance on rental discrimination says landlords should not unreasonably refuse a means of evidencing income that a tenant provides, such as a bank statement, a benefit letter or a payslip.

Can a landlord charge a tenant for an income or referencing check?

No, on most private lettings. Under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, which covers assured tenancies other than social housing, certain student lettings and licences to occupy housing in England, any payment a landlord or letting agent requires in connection with such a tenancy is prohibited unless Schedule 1 permits it, and referencing and credit check fees are not on that list. A landlord also must not require a tenant to enter into a contract with a third party for a service, such as buying their own report. Local trading standards enforce the Act.

Can a landlord refuse a tenant because they receive Universal Credit?

Not on that basis alone. For private lettings on assured tenancies, the Renters' Rights Act 2025 has since 1 May 2026 prohibited landlords and anyone acting for them from preventing a person enquiring about, viewing or renting a home because they are or may be a benefits claimant, or applying a criterion designed to make benefits claimants less likely to rent. The Act also says income can still be taken into account when considering whether a person could pay the rent, so the question is the amount, not where it comes from. Government guidance says the measures also extend to the older regulated tenancies, but not to social or supported housing. A local housing authority can impose a financial penalty of up to £7,000 for a breach.

Sources

The primary sources behind this guide. Where the law and a summary disagree, the law is what counts.

This article is general information, not legal advice. It reflects the position in England as at 23 October 2026. For official guidance, see the GOV.UK pages on renting out a property and tenant fees, the ICO's guidance on data protection, and the legislation linked above, and consider professional advice for your own situation.

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