Renting changed more on 1 May 2026 than it had in thirty years. You cannot be asked to bid above the advertised rent. You cannot be asked for more than one month’s rent in advance. There are no fixed terms, and no-fault eviction is gone. Here is what that means for your search — including the one thing it quietly took away.
Rental bidding is banned. A landlord or agent must publish an asking rent and cannot invite, encourage or accept offers above it. The advertised figure is the maximum lawful rent for that letting.
Since 1 May 2026 you cannot be required to pay more than a month’s rent up front. A holding deposit of up to one week’s rent is still lawful, and it must be refunded or credited to your first month.
Every assured tenancy is periodic. You can give two months’ notice at any point, and no-fault eviction under section 21 no longer exists — a landlord now needs a ground and the evidence for it.
Tenant fees have been banned in England since 2019. No admin fee, no referencing fee, no renewal fee. Only your deposit and your rent.
Area, budget, who is moving in and when. We will send what genuinely fits, including properties not yet advertised, and tell you which ones will not work before you cross London for them.
And answer the awkward questions — what the service charge covers, why the last tenant left, what the landlord is actually like to deal with.
Referencing, deposit protection, Right to Rent and the tenancy itself. You get a copy of everything, and nothing is charged to you at any stage.
Landlords and agents must advertise a clear asking rent and must not invite, encourage or accept offers above it. The advertised figure is now the maximum lawful rent for that letting, and the ban covers informal wording just as much as a formal auction — ‘best offers’, ‘open to offers’, or an application form asking what you would be prepared to pay.
From 1 May 2026 you cannot be required to pay more than one month’s rent up front, and an agent should decline it even if you offer. A holding deposit of up to one week’s rent remains lawful under the Tenant Fees Act 2019 and must be refunded or credited against your first month’s rent.
The honest caveat, which very few pages will tell you: large advance payments were how a lot of renters got a tenancy. Students, the newly self-employed, people arriving from overseas without a UK credit history, and anyone whose income does not fit a standard affordability model routinely offered six or twelve months up front to overcome failed referencing. That route has closed.
What does the job now is a guarantor, or a paid guarantor service, or in some cases a local authority rent deposit scheme. If your referencing is likely to be tight, arrange that before you start viewing rather than after you have been declined on a property you wanted. Tell us early and we will raise it with the landlord at the outset, where it is a conversation rather than a rejection.
Since 6 April 2025 the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act has governed what has to be disclosed. Material information — tenure, lease length, ground rent, service charge, known defects — must be given, and omitting it from an invitation to purchase is treated as unfair whether or not it would have changed your decision. If an agent will not tell you, that is not discretion.
On a leasehold house, check the unexpired term, the ground rent and any review mechanism — and note that the two-year ownership requirement before you can extend a lease was removed on 31 January 2025, so a short lease is a price adjustment rather than a long wait. And ask for sold comparables on the same street for the last twelve months rather than the postcode district, which is where asking prices go to look reasonable.
No. Since 1 May 2026 landlords and agents must publish a clear asking rent and cannot invite, encourage or accept offers above it. That covers informal phrasing too \u2014 \u2018best offers\u2019 or an application form asking what you would pay. The advertised figure is the maximum lawful rent for that letting, and local authorities enforce it with financial penalties. If you are asked, you are entitled to point it out.
Not any more. From 1 May 2026 you cannot be required to pay more than one month\u2019s rent up front, and an agent should decline it even if you volunteer. A holding deposit of up to one week\u2019s rent is still allowed and must be refunded or credited to your first month. If your referencing is likely to be difficult, a guarantor or guarantor service is now the route \u2014 tell us early and we will raise it with the landlord before you apply.
Two months, at any point. Fixed terms were abolished, so every assured tenancy is periodic and you are not locked into a twelve-month commitment. That cuts the other way for landlords too, which is why some are more interested than they used to be in tenants who intend to stay.
Once a year, by a formal section 13 notice, and you can challenge it at the First-tier Tribunal if you think it exceeds the market rent. Rent review clauses that allowed increases more often, or increases by a fixed formula, no longer operate in the way they used to. If you receive an increase that looks out of line with what similar properties are letting for, that is worth questioning rather than accepting.
No, and nor should anyone else in England. Tenant fees have been banned since 2019 apart from a narrow list \u2014 the deposit, a holding deposit of up to one week\u2019s rent, rent itself and specific default charges. Anyone asking you for an admin, referencing or renewal fee is breaking the law.
