DRAFT TENANTS’ FEES BILL
“Proposals will be brought forward to ban unfair
tenant fees, promote fairness and transparency in the
housing market [...]”
The purpose of the Bill is to:
-
Ban charging tenants ‘letting fees’ to improve
transparency, affordability and competition in the private
rental market.
The main benefits of the Bill would
be:
-
To increase competition in the private rental sector,
resulting in lower costs overall and a higher quality of
service for renters.
-
Reduced upfront costs for tenants.
-
To deliver on the manifesto commitment to “shortly ban
letting agent fees” (p.59), and make renting fairer and more
affordable for millions of tenants. Banning letting agent fees
will improve transparency for renters - currently, these fees
are not explained clearly, meaning tenants are charged very
different, and sometimes very high, fees for similar
services.
The main elements of the Bill are:
-
Measures to ban landlords and agents from requiring
tenants to pay letting fees as a condition of their
tenancy.
-
Measures to enforce the ban with provision for tenants to
be able to recover unlawfully charged fees.
Territorial extent and application
-
The ban would apply to England only. However, some minor
amendments to the Consumer Rights Act 2015 may apply to England
and Wales.
Key facts
-
The English Housing Survey 2014-15 found that the average
letting fees charged per tenancy is £223 and that median fees
charged by agents increased by 60% between 2009-10 and 2014-15
(14% increase in mean). Shelter found that 1 in 7 tenants pay
more than £500.
-
Citizens’ Advice Bureau found that 64% of tenants
experienced problems paying letting agents’ fees and 42% had to
borrow money.
-
An eight-week consultation on banning letting fees paid
by tenants closed on 2 June. Responses will be used to inform
the draft Bill, and the Government will respond fully in due
course.
