For renters
How long does a rental application take in England?
A rental application in England usually takes about one to two weeks from a successful viewing to the day you move in. The checking part, referencing, is normally only two to three working days. Most of the rest of the time goes on the steps around it: agreeing the let, paying a holding deposit, the Right to Rent check, and signing. Having your documents ready before you enquire is the single biggest thing in your control.
The steps, and roughly how long each takes
Every let is a little different, but the order is almost always the same.
- Enquiry and viewing, same day to a few days. You find a property, enquire, and arrange a viewing. How quickly this happens depends on the landlord's or agent's diary.
- Agreeing to proceed, same day to 24 hours. If the viewing goes well and you want the property, you tell the landlord or agent and they confirm they are happy to take your application forward.
- Holding deposit, same day. You usually pay a holding deposit to reserve the property while your application is processed. In England this is capped at one week's rent.
- Referencing and Right to Rent, two to three working days on average. You submit your documents, and the landlord, agent or a referencing provider confirms your identity, that the rent is affordable, and how your previous tenancy went. The Right to Rent check runs alongside. The full range is same-day at the quickest to around five working days if a referee is slow.
- Signing the tenancy agreement, same day to a couple of days. Once the checks are back, you and the landlord sign. You normally pay the first month's rent and the tenancy deposit around this point.
- Move-in day. You collect the keys on the agreed start date. By law the deposit must be protected in a government-approved scheme within 30 days of the landlord receiving it.
A realistic total
- About one week. When documents are ready, referees reply quickly, and the start date is soon.
- One to two weeks. The common case from a successful viewing to moving in.
- Longer. When a referee is slow, when you are self-employed or newly in a job, or when the move-in date is set further ahead by choice.
Weekends, bank holidays and the busy autumn moving season can each add a day or two, because so much of the timeline depends on other people replying.
The part you control, and the part you do not
Most of the waiting depends on other people: a landlord's diary, a referee's inbox, a signing date that suits everyone. The part you can control is being ready. Applications in England tend to ask for the same handful of documents, so gathering them before you enquire is where the easy time savings are. For the full list, see our renter document checklist for England, and for the checking step on its own, how long tenant referencing takes. If your right to rent is held digitally, our guide to the Right to Rent share code shows how to get one.
One thing worth knowing: under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, a landlord or agent in England cannot require you to pay for referencing as a condition of renting. When a landlord or agent needs a reference, arranging and paying for it is their responsibility, not yours.
Reserve a property with a holding deposit
A holding deposit reserves a property while your application is processed, and in England it cannot be more than one week's rent. The law also sets a default deadline, usually 15 days from when you pay the holding deposit, for the tenancy to be entered into, unless both sides agree in writing to a different date. If the landlord decides not to proceed with your application, the holding deposit must normally be returned to you. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 sets out the limited situations in which it can be kept, for example if the information you gave was false or misleading.
Get ready once, then stop repeating yourself
When you are viewing several homes at once, you often end up sending the same documents and the same details to one landlord after another. A renter profile lets you gather your renting information in one place and keep it current, so when an application does begin, your details are ready instead of scattered across your phone during moving week. Building a renter profile is not charged for.
To be clear about what a profile is not: VEYLO X does not carry out referencing and does not make any decision about you. Any referencing is run by the landlord, their agent or a referencing provider, because that is who arranges it. VEYLO X is a neutral platform.
Sources
The primary sources behind this guide. Where the law and a summary disagree, the law is what counts. How we write these guides.