Concerns before your tenancy starts

Contents

• Overview
• Concerns before your tenancy starts
• Fees and upfront costs
• Help with your rent
• Tenant responsibilities
• Landlord responsibilities
• Difficulties with your landlord
• Rent arrears
• Housing standards and repairs
  
• Ending your tenancy
• Eviction

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Concerns before your tenancy starts

The Renters’ Right Act 2025 introduced a ban on the following practices in the private rented sector:

Rental bidding

When a landlord or letting agent advertises a property in writing, they must include an advertised price.  A written advert or offer can be an online property advert, a printed advert, a social media post, any digital communication, including emails, texts and direct messaging, a handwritten advert or offer. It does not include ‘to let’ signs outside a property. 

They must not publish another advert with a higher advertised price for the same letting, publish a price range for the property, invite, encourage, or accept a higher offer, tell you they have received other bids to encourage you to bid more than the advertised price, or act in any way that would lead you to believe they need to bid above the advertised price 

Rent payment in advance

A landlord or a letting agent can ask you to pay deposits before the tenancy agreement is signed. However, they cannot ask you to pay rent. If they do that, we can investigate them and issue a civil penalty if they have broken the rules.  If you offer a landlord or agent rent before all parties have signed the tenancy agreement, the landlord or agent must not accept it. If they accept the rent, we can also investigate them and issue a civil penalty.

The pre-tenancy period is the period  from when the contract is signed until the start date of the tenancy. If you will be paying rent monthly, landlords or agents can ask you to pay your first month’s rent at any time during the pre-tenancy period. If you are paying rent more frequently than monthly, for example, weekly, then they can ask for rent covering up to the first 28 days of the tenancy. Landlords must not demand more than this. If they do, you can refuse to pay.

Discrimination against households receiving benefits or with children

Landlords and anyone acting on their behalf must not do anything that  make you less likely to enter a tenancy agreement on the basis  you have children or receive benefits. This includes (but is not limited to) stopping you:

• accessing information about a property, including its availability
• viewing a property
• signing a tenancy agreement

Landlords can take your income into account when considering if the rent is affordable. They are not liable for a breach if you are not able to afford the income that is required, regardless of whether you have children or receive benefits.

In certain cases, landlords may stop children from living in a property if they can demonstrate that the restriction is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. Common examples will include retirement homes and student housing. Another example could be that a property would be unsafe for children.

You can report concerns relating to rent requests in advance, rental bidding and rental bidding using this form:

Report a concern before your tenancy starts

Pets

If your future landlord has refused permission for you to have a pet and you think the refusal is unreasonable, you can apply to the Court to review the decision.

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