Law guide: Landlords

See how we helped Liz

"It's not just a website... there are people there on call who can help answer your queries."

Liz W, London

How to find and manage tenants

How to find and manage tenants

Lettings and property management agents

Some landlords use lettings agents to find tenants for their property and/or property management agents to manage the rental (including rent collection, repairs and maintenance checks).

Agents who are members of a professional organisation are required to operate to standards recognised by their organisations. These include the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the Association of Residential Letting Agents, the Incorporated Society of Valuers and Auctioneers, and the National Association of Estate Agents.

Landlords should be aware that any agent they appoint will be bound by the actions of their agent if they act within the authority given to them. Landlords should ensure their agent is reputable and that there is a clear agreement of what they are authorised to do.

Letting agents in Scotland must comply with a Letting Agent Code of Practice and join a Register of Letting Agents. The Register of Letting Agents is administered by Scottish Ministers to ensure that every letting agent is suitable to do the job and has met minimum training requirements.

Tenant fees ban

From 1 June 2019 in England and 1 September 2019 in Wales, neither agents nor landlords can charge tenants certain fees in relation to a letting. A similar ban has been in effect in Scotland since 2012. See Fees ban for more information.

Redress scheme (England only)

Lettings agents and property management agents in England must be members of a redress scheme. The scheme enables landlords and tenants (who have an assured tenancy, including an AST) to make complaints about lettings agents, and/or property management work.

Housing associations

Some housing associations lease property from landlords for periods of at least 2 years and/or manage the property (and charge a fee to cover their management costs or deduct the costs from the rental income). They may be able to provide help with the cost of repairs to bring the property up to standard for letting – for more about housing standards see Housing standards.

For more information, get in touch with the housing department of the local authority for where the property is located.

Related services

Copyright © 2024 Epoq Group Ltd. All trademarks acknowledged, all rights reserved

This website is operated by Epoq Legal Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 3707955, whose registered office is at 2 Imperial Place, Maxwell Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, WD6 1JN. Epoq Legal Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA number 645296).

Our use of cookies

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We would also like to set some optional cookies. We won't set these optional cookies unless you enable them. Please choose whether this site may use optional cookies by selecting 'On' or 'Off' for each category below. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences.

For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our Cookie notice.

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Functionality cookies

We'd like to set cookies to provide you with a better customer experience. For more information on these cookies, please see our cookie notice.