When you have decided to apply for a property, we will provide you with a Fee Declaration form which will explain our lettings process and any further fee's that may be applied throughout the tenancy. Regarding the deposit which is paid we will in most cases secure your deposit with DPS, Deposit Protection Services, this may vary if the landlord has his own deposit scheme which we will need to see proof of.

All fees are non-refundable, however, if the application passes the credit check and the landlord declines to proceed, a full refund will be made.

We are required by law to carry out a Right to Rent check on all occupiers over the age of 18, irrespective of whether they are a tenant or a permitted occupier. This is entirely separate from tenant referencing and there is no charge for this. This will be done as part of your full referencing process.

Once you have decided to apply for one of our properties one of our professional members of staff will talk you through what fees will need to be paid and when the rent and deposit needs to be paid.

If you have any further questions please give one of the offices a call or email us at lettings@reganandhallworth.com

Holding Deposits

Holding deposits will be limited to a maximum of 1 week's rent and subject to statutory legislation on the repayment of this should the tenancy not go ahead. Briefly, this is proposed to be:

1. The landlord / agent has 15 days to make a decision once a holding deposit is taken.

2. If the tenancy does not go ahead then the money must be repaid in full within 7 days of the deadline being reached or the landlord / agent backing out.

3. Repayment does not need to be in full if the tenant backs out of the tenancy agreement themselves, fails right to rent checks, has provided false or misleading information, or where the landlord / agent tries their best to get the information needed but the tenant fails to provide it within the 15 days.

4. If the tenancy does go ahead, the holding deposit must be returned within 7 days of agreement, unless it is converted into part payment of the actual deposit or used towards the initial rent payment.

Deposits

Deposits will be limited to 5 weeks rent as a maximum amount for tenancies where the annual rent is below £50,000. This has gone up from the originally proposed limit of one month.

Deposits for tenancies where the annual rent is £50,000 or more are limited to the equivalent of 6 weeks rent.

Breaches of the tenancy agreement (damages)

Where the tenant has breached their tenancy agreement and caused damage as a result, then landlords may still seek compensation via deductions from the deposit or court action. They should also be able to leave clauses in their contract stating that the landlord / agent may seek their costs for damages.

What they will not be able to do is insert a clause in the tenancy which sets a fixed fee for the damages incurred (a default fee) unless it is specifically permitted.

The government's guidance goes further than this however, wrongly stating that landlords may not have clauses in their contract stating that that legal costs will be payable in the event of a breach.

Breaches of the tenancy agreement (default payments)

Landlords / agents are allowed to charge for two types of default payments - loss of keys and late payment of rent. Both are subject to restrictions.

For the loss of keys, landlords / agents are allowed to charge the reasonable cost that they can evidence in writing. Anything landlords cannot evidence in writing with receipts will likely be considered a prohibited payment.

For late payment of rent, landlords and agents may only charge 3% above the Bank of England base rate in interest on the late payment of rent from the date the payment is missed. At the time of writing this would be 3.75% interest. They may not charge for sending reminder letters.