Tenants guide

Contents

• Overview
• 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

Overview

Renting a property in the private sector is becoming a more affordable and accessible option for households. Cheshire East has a significant shortage of social housing but has a large and thriving private rented market.

Finding a property

Before you start looking for private rented accommodation, you need to carefully consider the following:

• type - the type of accommodation required depends on individual circumstances, for example do you need ground floor access or a home with a garden
• size - think about how many people are in the household and how many bedrooms are needed
• affordability - you need to be sure that your rent is affordable before committing to a tenancy agreement. Make sure you have budgeted for Council Tax, water, electricity, gas and food, as well as any other financial commitments such as credit cards or loans that you have

Renting privately

Renting privately can be slightly more expensive than renting from a social landlord but there are advantages:

• you can usually move in quickly
• the accommodation can come furnished, carpeted and decorated
• you can be more selective about the location and type of property you rent.

Places you can consider looking for available properties include:

• online letting and estate agency sites
• local letting and estate agency offices, their websites and social media
• Facebook marketplace
• Small ads in local newspapers and noticeboards in local shops

If a property is advertised as ‘No DSS’ (won’t allow people in receipt of welfare benefits) then you can challenge this. Shelter has useful information on their website about how to challenge DSS discrimination.

When you enter into a tenancy, its important that you understand what type of tenancy agreement you have so that you know your rights. Use Shelter tenancy rights checker to help.  

Renters' Rights Act 2025

The Renters' Rights Act achieved Royal Assent and became law in October 2025. The Act provides additional rights for residents and places a duty on local authorities to investigate and enforce action against landlords and letting agents who do not comply with the new law. You can find out more about the Renters' Rights Act on the Government website Guide to the Renters’ Rights Act - GOV.UK

The Act is being rolled out in stages so not all of the measures are available now. You can view the Government's timetable for implementation Implementing the Renters' Rights Act 2025: Our roadmap for reforming the Private Rented Sector - GOV.UK  

We will update this guide when the changes are scheduled to take place.