The Tenant Fees Act has been implemented

The Tenant Fees Act has now come into force, cutting fees imposed by landlords and agents.

The act also caps the tenancy deposits that renters pay at the start of their tenancy at the equivalent of five weeks’ rent.

In addition, under the its default fee provision, landlords and agents are only able to recover reasonably incurred costs from tenants for lost keys or other security devices and must provide evidence of these costs before they can impose any charges.

They may also charge a default fee in relation to late rent.

Mike Claxton, director of Norwich-based Norfolk Property Lettings & Management, says: “Any of our landlords requiring further information on this are very welcome to contact us.

“From our own perspective, we remain very positive about the changes and will continue to offer our landlords a full range of services, including obtaining and checking tenants’ references.”

In tandem with the act coming into force, the government has published a new set of rental documents, which have been updated to include fees ban information.

Four documents were released at the very end of Friday afternoon’s working hours.

These were How to Let, How to Rent, How to Rent a Safe Home, and Check if Someone Can Rent Your Residential Property.

The critical Form 6a, for issuing a S21 notice, was not released until Saturday morning; it too was updated to include reference to the Tenant Fees Act which took effect that day.

If agents and landlords do not issue the correct versions of the forms, any Section 21 notice can be invalidated.