For renters
What landlords can (and can't) ask for when you rent
Applying for a rented home in England means handing over a fair amount of personal information, and usually some money. Most of what is asked for is reasonable. Some of it is capped by law, and a few things are banned outright. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 works the opposite way round from what most people expect: rather than judging whether a charge is fair, it sets out a short list of payments a landlord or agent is allowed to require, and treats anything outside that list as prohibited.
What a landlord can reasonably ask for
To let a property responsibly, a landlord usually needs to confirm a few things:
- Proof of identity and your right to rent. This is the Right to Rent check, and it is a legal duty on the landlord. GOV.UK tells landlords to check every adult who will live in the property, and that checking only the people they believe are not British citizens is against the law.
- References. Often a previous landlord and sometimes an employer, to confirm you have rented before and can afford the rent.
- Proof of income or affordability. Payslips, an employment contract, or accounts if you are self employed.
- A holding deposit, to reserve the property while checks are done. Capped at one week's rent.
- A tenancy deposit, capped and protected in a government approved scheme.
These are all normal. A landlord asking for them is doing their job.
What can a landlord legally charge in England?
Schedule 1 of the Tenant Fees Act 2019 lists the permitted payments and puts a number on most of them.
| Payment | Allowed? | The cap |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | Yes | But rent payable before an assured tenancy is entered into is now a prohibited payment |
| Tenancy deposit | Yes | Five weeks' rent where the annual rent is under £50,000. Six weeks' where it is £50,000 or more. Anything above that is prohibited |
| Holding deposit | Yes | One week's rent. Anything above that is prohibited |
| Replacement key or security device | Only if the tenancy agreement requires it | The costs reasonably incurred, and they must be supported by written evidence given to you |
| Late rent | Only once rent is 14 days late, and only if the agreement requires it | 3% above the Bank of England base rate, worked out per day on the amount still unpaid |
| Changing the tenancy at your request | Yes | £50, or reasonable costs if higher |
| Ending the tenancy early at your request | Yes | Reasonable costs |
| Utilities, communication services, TV licence, council tax | Yes | The actual cost |
| Referencing, credit checks, admin or application fees | No | Prohibited outright |
| Inventory checks, viewings, renewing a tenancy | No | Prohibited outright |
Schedule 1 defines one week's rent precisely, as the annual rent divided by 52, so the caps are arithmetic rather than a matter of opinion.
Can a landlord ask for rent up front?
This changed on 1 May 2026. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 inserted a new paragraph into Schedule 1 of the Tenant Fees Act, and the effect is that a payment of rent is a prohibited payment where it is payable before the tenancy is entered into and the tenancy is an assured tenancy.
Several months' rent demanded in advance of signing used to sit in a grey area, and it was sometimes used to work around an affordability question. In England it now sits on the wrong side of a line in the schedule. This is recent enough that a good deal of published guidance has not caught up with it, so the text of the schedule on legislation.gov.uk is the thing worth checking.
What are the rules on a holding deposit?
A holding deposit is capped at one week's rent. There is also a rule that is easy to miss: a holding deposit is not a permitted payment at all where the landlord or agent already took a holding deposit on the same property, has not repaid it, and none of the statutory reasons for keeping it applied. In other words, an agent cannot take a holding deposit from one applicant, keep it without grounds, and then take another from the next person.
A holding deposit does not have to be protected in a scheme. GOV.UK is clear that once you become a tenant it becomes a deposit, and at that point it must be protected.
What happens to your deposit
According to GOV.UK, a deposit on an assured shorthold tenancy that started after 6 April 2007 must go into one of three government approved schemes in England and Wales: the Deposit Protection Service, MyDeposits or the Tenancy Deposit Scheme. The landlord or agent has 30 days from receiving it.
At the end of the tenancy there is a second deadline that fewer people know about: the deposit must be returned within 10 days of both sides agreeing how much is coming back. If there is a dispute, the money stays protected in the scheme until it is resolved, and the schemes run a free dispute service.
A deposit paid by someone else, a parent or a rent deposit scheme, must still be protected. There is more detail in our guide to how deposit protection works in England.
Requests that should make you pause
- Money before you have seen the property or signed anything. Transferring funds to reserve a home nobody has viewed, particularly under time pressure, is the pattern most rental scams rely on.
- A charge with no name. Every permitted payment in Schedule 1 has a label and a cap. A payment that cannot be matched to one of them is worth a question.
- A key or late payment charge with no evidence behind it. The schedule requires written evidence for costs recovered on a lost key, provided to the person being charged.
- Personal documents over insecure channels. You are sharing sensitive information, and it is reasonable to ask how it will be stored and who can see it.
What if you have already been charged?
The statutory route runs in stages. A written request to the landlord or agent for repayment, quoting the Tenant Fees Act 2019, comes first. Trading standards at the local council enforce the Act, and can require repayment and impose a financial penalty. Where a tenant is eligible, an application can also be made to the First-tier Tribunal to recover the payment, and time limits and evidence requirements apply. Letting agents must belong to a redress scheme, which gives a further route. Shelter and Citizens Advice both give free guidance, and our guide to referencing fees covers this ground for that specific charge.
Your data is yours
A landlord can ask to see documents that confirm your identity, your income and your rental history. That is not the same as keeping unlimited copies indefinitely or passing them around. Under UK data protection law your information should only be used for the tenancy and kept securely, and you are entitled to ask what is held about you and why.
This is the quiet argument for gathering your renting information in one place rather than emailing documents to a dozen strangers. VEYLO X has been built to keep that information in one record rather than scattered across inboxes. It is not open yet.
The simple rule of thumb
If a request is about confirming who you are and that the rent is affordable, it is probably fair. If it is a fee to be considered, or pressure to pay before you have seen anything, the schedule is worth checking. In England the Tenant Fees Act 2019 means a tenant cannot be charged for referencing, and knowing that one fact is usually enough to stop the most common overcharge.
Sources
The primary sources behind this guide. Where the law and a summary disagree, the law is what counts. How we write these guides.