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Letting agents charge landlords for three levels of service: tenant find, tenant find with rent collection, and full management. The fee is usually a percentage of the rent, sometimes with fixed charges for set-up or compliance, and it rises with the work the agent takes on after the tenant moves in. Tenants cannot be charged agency fees in England, so the whole cost of letting sits with the landlord.
This guide explains how fees work at the time of writing. It is general information and not legal, tax or financial advice. Ask an accountant how letting fees are treated for your tax return.
The three tiers
| Tenant find | Rent collection | Full management | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rental valuation and advice | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Marketing, viewings, asking rent | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Referencing and Right to Rent checks | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Written tenancy terms, deposit registration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Collecting rent and monthly statements | No | Yes | Yes |
| Chasing arrears | No | Yes | Yes |
| Repairs, contractors, emergencies | No | No | Yes |
| Inspections | No | No | Yes |
| Safety renewals (gas, EICR, alarms) | No | No | Yes |
| Rent reviews and notices | No | Sometimes | Yes |
| End of tenancy and deposit return | No | No | Yes |
Agents draw the lines in different places, so read the list, not the name. A rent collection service that does not chase arrears, or full management that charges extra for every inspection, is a different product from the one in the table.
Tenant find suits a landlord who lives nearby, knows the rules and has reliable contractors. Rent collection suits a landlord who wants the money handled and recorded but is happy to deal with repairs. Full management suits landlords who live away, own several properties, or would rather the agent carried the compliance work. Our guide to what a property manager does walks through a managed year.
How fees are charged
- A percentage of the rent. The usual model. Tenant find is often charged as a percentage of a set number of months' rent, taken at the start. Rent collection and full management are usually a monthly percentage taken from each payment.
- Fixed set-up fees. Some agents add a fixed charge at the start for the tenancy paperwork, the inventory or deposit registration.
- Compliance charges. Arranging the gas safety record or EICR may carry a fee on top of the contractor's invoice. Ask whether the agent adds a margin to contractor costs.
- Per-event charges. Serving notices, attending court, extra inspections or managing a major refurbishment are often charged separately.
- Renewal fees. Older contracts may charge a fee each time a fixed term was renewed. Since 1 May 2026 every private tenancy is periodic, with no fixed term to renew, so check what such a clause now means. Our guide to the Renters' Rights Act explains the change.
VAT
A VAT-registered agent adds VAT at the standard rate to its fees. Section 83 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires letting agents in England to publish their fees including any tax, on their website and at their offices, and to describe what each fee covers. If a quote leaves VAT out, add it before you compare.
What agents must tell you
Under section 83, an agent's published fees must also say which client money protection scheme and which redress scheme the agent belongs to. Two other rules apply:
- Redress. Every agent doing lettings or property management work in England must belong to a government-approved redress scheme, so you have somewhere to complain if the agent's own complaints procedure fails.
- Client money protection. An agent holding rent or deposits for clients must belong to an approved client money protection scheme.
If an agent cannot name both, do not hand over rent or keys.
What tenants cannot be charged
The Tenant Fees Act 2019 bans agents and landlords from charging tenants for referencing, credit checks, inventories, admin, check-out or renewals. Tenants can be asked only for permitted payments: the rent, a deposit capped at five weeks' rent where annual rent is under £50,000, a holding deposit of up to one week's rent, and certain defaults such as reasonable costs for a lost key or interest on rent more than 14 days late. Since 1 May 2026 no more than one month's rent can be taken in advance.
So the cost of finding and checking a tenant is the landlord's, through the agent's fee. An agent quoting a low landlord fee is not recovering the difference from the tenant lawfully.
What full management saves, and what it does not
A management fee buys time and transfers work, but not all of the risk. The landlord still owns the property, pays for repairs, holds the insurance and is the party a court or council will look to. A good managing agent reduces the chance of a missed certificate, a late deposit registration or an unanswered repair, each of which can now weaken a possession claim under the Renters' Rights Act. It does not make an unsuitable property lettable or a weak tenant reliable.
Set the fee against what you would otherwise do yourself: answering repair calls, finding contractors who will attend in Boscombe on a Sunday, tracking renewals, serving notices on the right form and keeping records a court would accept. For a landlord living outside Dorset, or with several properties, the calculation usually looks different from one with a single flat around the corner.
What to compare
- The annual total. Work out the first year's cost for each agent, including VAT, set-up and the compliance charges you will certainly incur.
- What happens to arrears. Who chases, how quickly, and what happens if the tenant stops paying.
- Repair limits. The amount the agent can spend without asking you, and how emergencies are handled.
- Inspections. How often, whether they are included, and what the report looks like.
- The exit. The notice period, and any fee if you leave or the tenant stays on after you switch to a lower tier.
- Local knowledge. In Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch, whether the agent knows the licensing position, the leasehold blocks and the student and seasonal market.
The letting agent or self-managing comparison sets the decision out side by side.
Our fees
Our fees for each tier are:. They will be published, with VAT and our redress and client money protection schemes, on our fees page. Until then we give every landlord a written quote that lists each charge for the first year. Start with a rental valuation and we will price the service at the same visit. Our letting agents page explains how we let and manage across Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch.
