As of 1st June 2019, if you enter into a tenancy agreement, student let, or licence to occupy housing in the private rented sector in England, government legislation known as the Tenant Fees Act will apply.
Under this Act, landlords are responsible for covering the costs associated with setting up, renewing, or ending a tenancy, including fees for referencing, administration, inventory, renewals, and check-outs.
Though we do not charge tenants for referencing, we are permitted to ask you to provide information which supports us to carry out a reference check, such as:
To secure a property, we will require a holding deposit equivalent to one-weeks rent. When received, we will take the property off the market and begin the referencing process. Once referencing is completed and is satisfactory, this holding deposit will be allocated towards the first months’ rent. If you to provide the necessary information in good time, and we can demonstrate that we have given sufficient notice to provide this, we will be entitled to retain the holding deposit. We will provide reasons in writing to you to explain why we have retained your holding deposit should this occur.
If you change your mind and decide to withdraw after paying a holding deposit, and you notify us of this before the ‘deadline for agreement’ has passed (usually a maximum of two weeks after the holding deposit is paid), we are entitled to retain the holding deposit. Even if you do not notify us of your decision to withdraw, we are still entitled to retain the holding deposit if you have not taken reasonable steps to enter into the tenancy before that date (i.e. providing reasonable information required to progress the tenancy) and we have taken all reasonable steps.