The typical two-adult household is being hit by letting fees of up to £813 when taking on a home to rent, according to a new report by the campaign group Generation Rent.

The report has been published a day before the close of a consultation on government proposals to ban letting fees for tenants.



Generation Rent found that despite the proposed ban, tenants in England are still paying an average of £404 every time they move. There can also be additional charges for tenants on low incomes and needing rent guarantors (at an average cost £152), or simply needing to move in on a Saturday (an extra £62), said the researchers.

The team says that letting agents are also charging for tenancy renewals, at an average price of £117 every six or 12 months. Check-out fees at the end of a tenancy are charged at £120, and references for the next tenancy average £60 for two people.

Thirteen agents had charged tenants, who accidentally overpaid their rent, an average of £25, the campaign said.

The highest fee found by Generation Rent’s volunteers was at Romans, an agency in Wokingham, where the total fee was £813. But they have also found agents, including Piper Property (in Bristol) and East & Co (in Waltham Forest, east London), not charging tenants fees.

Generation Rent is calling on the government to apply a blanket ban on fees without exemptions for “in-tenancy” services (an area that can be abused by agents) and create a system of compensation for tenants charged illegal fees.

The government is being urged to put a blanket ban on tenant fees, though agents say the charges cover essential services. Photograph: Jeffrey Blackler/Alamy

Dan Wilson Craw, director of Generation Rent, said: “No one moves house for fun, and letting fees make an already stressful situation worse. Landlords appoint their agents, so should be paying their costs – landlords can also shop around for the best deal more easily than tenants can.

“As the sheer range of fees being charged demonstrates, some letting agents are squeezing as much from tenants as they can. That’s why we need a blanket ban, with no loopholes that could be exploited by less scrupulous agents.”

But David Cox, chief executive of the Association of Residential Letting Agents, said that if a ban were enforced, rents would rise and tenants would end up paying more.

He said: “Letting agent fees cover the cost of essential services during the lettings agreement, such as reference checks, drafting of the tenancy agreement, and management of tenancy extensions or renewal. All these processes cost letting agents time and money to undertake.

“Research commissioned by ARLA Propertymark carried out by Capital Economics demonstrated that if a full ban comes into force, two tenants will end up paying an extra £206 per year in rent. Therefore, rather than making savings, this policy will end up costing tenants more the longer they live in their home.”

Generation Rent said that government measures to force letting agents to publish their fees had not been wholly successful. Its research found that one agent in eight (12%) were still not publishing fees on their website two years after the law had been changed.



Volunteers with Generation Rent surveyed 1,087 agents in 20 local council areas in England. The results are on the website www.lettingfees.co.uk.