Letting Agent Websites: Tenant Fees Act Display and Client Money

For a letting agent in England, the website is not just a shop window. Section 83 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 turns it into a place where legal information must appear. The Act says a letting agent must publicise details of its relevant fees, display a list at each office where it deals face to face, and publish the list on its own website if it has one. Local weights and measures authorities, which means trading standards, enforce the duty.

This guide is for letting agents, agency managers and the developers or marketing teams who maintain their sites. It describes what the pages must carry, what the fee rules mean for what you advertise, and how recent changes to renting law affect copy and forms. It covers England; the Act also applies in Wales in part, but the client money and redress statements are specific to England, and housing law is devolved, so check Welsh and Scottish rules separately. The material comes from GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk pages checked on 22 October 2026. It is general information, not legal advice; ask Propertymark, your redress scheme or a solicitor about borderline cases.

The statute is more precise than many agents realise. The list of fees must include, for each fee:

• a description sufficient for the person liable to pay it to understand the service or cost it covers, or the purpose for which it is imposed;
• for fees tenants are liable to pay, an indication of whether the fee relates to each dwelling-house or each tenant;
• the amount of each fee inclusive of any applicable tax or, if the amount cannot reasonably be determined in advance, a description of how it is calculated.

In practice a bare line such as "Admin fee - £250" does not meet the standard. "Landlord fee: tenant find service, £x including VAT per property" would. Remember that the fees in question are the agent's relevant fees, and since the Tenant Fees Act 2019 most of what tenants pay is banned, so the list is mostly about landlord fees and the few permitted tenant payments.

Where should the list live? A dedicated page, linked from the site footer and from every property page, works best. Do not hide it in a PDF that is hard to find. The Act's wording requires the list to be published on the agent's website, and the enforcement guidance describes the duty as prominently displaying the information in the office and online.

Section 83 also attaches two statements to the fee list for agents working in England. If the agent is required to be a member of a client money protection scheme for that work, the duty includes displaying or publishing, with the list of fees, a statement indicating that the agent is a member and giving the name of the scheme. If the agent is required to be a member of a redress scheme for dealing with complaints about that work, the same applies: a statement that indicates membership and gives the name of the scheme.

The Tenant Fees Act strengthened the first of these. The government's statutory guidance explains that the Act amended the rules so that letting agents must give the name of their client money protection scheme, not just say whether they are a member. The Act also moved enforcement of client money protection schemes to local weights and measures authorities.

Put both statements immediately above or below the fee table so they cannot be separated. Take the exact scheme names from your membership certificates, and update the page when you change scheme. The GOV.UK enforcement guidance also points to separate guidance on client money protection, which is worth reading if you handle tenants' deposits or landlords' rent.

Section 83 has a provision for third-party websites. If an agent is carrying on letting agency work for a dwelling-house in England and advertises it on a third-party website, or advertises its letting agency work there, it must ensure that either a list of its relevant fees is published on that website, or that there is a link on that website to the part of its own website where the list is published. GOV.UK's guidance for landlords and agents gives Rightmove, Zoopla and Facebook as examples of such sites.

Check this at three points:

1. Portal profile. Add the link to the fee page in your branch profile.
2. Each advert template. Put the link in the description footer your feed sends, so it appears on every listing.
3. Social posts. A Facebook property post counts as an advert on a third-party website, so include the link or the fees in the post text or a pinned comment.

Test the link on a phone, because many tenants search on mobile. If your property feed is generated from your website, our web application development team can add the link to the feed template once.

Your fee page should also match the permitted payments. GOV.UK's guide to fees says landlords and agents can charge tenants only the following in connection with a tenancy: the rent once the agreement is signed, a refundable holding deposit, a payment to change the tenancy when requested by the tenant, a payment when the tenant does not give the correct notice, a payment towards utilities, communication services and council tax, and a fee for replacing a key or security device. It states that you cannot charge a tenant any payment that is not on the list, and that requiring a tenant to take out a loan, buy insurance or start a service contract is also a prohibited payment.

Properties with annual rent above £100,000 are outside the Act. Use plain language in your copy: "We do not charge tenants any administration, referencing or inventory fees" is acceptable only if it is true for every tenancy you let.

GOV.UK's fee guide now opens with a notice that the Renters' Rights Act has changed laws about renting, and the Tenant Fees Act guidance has been reissued as amended by that Act. Two changes matter most for website copy and forms.

Rent in advance. From 1 May 2026, landlords and agents cannot require or accept rent before the tenancy agreement is signed. If a tenant offers it, you must not accept it. After signing and before the start date you may ask for a maximum of one month's rent. Check the application form, the "reserve this property" page and your payment links for any request for rent at the offer stage.

Rental bidding. The government's guide to the Act says it ends bidding by prohibiting landlords and agents from asking for or accepting offers above the advertised rent, and that they will be required to publish an asking rent. Do not use "offers over", "best offer" or "rent negotiable" wording on listings, and confirm the commencement position with the guidance before you rewrite templates.

The same guide says the Act will make it illegal for landlords and agents to discriminate against prospective tenants who receive benefits or have children. Pages, adverts and enquiry forms should not exclude those groups. The statutory guidance on fees also notes that existing guarantor agreements entered into before 1 May 2026 may need review, which concerns your documents rather than the site.

Failing to follow section 83 carries a financial penalty. The Act allows a local weights and measures authority to impose a penalty where it is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that an agent breached a duty under section 83, and the amount must not exceed £5,000. A breach of the duty to publish on a third-party website is treated as occurring in each local authority area where a relevant property is located, and since the Tenant Fees Act more than one penalty can be imposed for a continuing breach once 28 days have passed after a final notice.

Prohibited payments carry heavier consequences. GOV.UK states that a first breach can be penalised by up to £5,000, and a second or later breach within five years can lead to a penalty of up to £30,000 or prosecution. A conviction brings an unlimited fine and is a banning order offence. The enforcement guidance tells officers that checking documents such as a tenancy agreement or a company website is part of an investigation, so your site is evidence.

The conclusion is practical: treat the fee page and the statements as controlled content. Assign an owner, record the date of each review, and keep screenshots of what the page showed on a given date.

Our website maintenance plans include scheduled checks of legal pages, and our web design team builds fee pages with clear tables. For an estate and lettings site, request a quote; simple websites start from EUR 300 excl. VAT, see pricing.

Renting law is moving, so build a routine rather than a one-off fix. Set a diary date each quarter to compare your pages with the current GOV.UK guidance, since several documents were reissued after the Renters' Rights Act. Update the fees page the day a fee, scheme or VAT status changes. When a landlord brings a new type of service, add it to the list before you offer it. Ask a second person to read the listing templates and the application journey as a tenant would. If something seems unclear, ask your redress scheme or a solicitor rather than guessing. And if you are unsure whether the project needs a developer or only content edits, contact us and we will say which.

• Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 83 - legislation.gov.uk
• Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 87 - legislation.gov.uk
• Fees you can charge as part of a tenancy - GOV.UK
• Tenant Fees Act 2019: statutory guidance for enforcement authorities - GOV.UK
• Tenant Fees Act - GOV.UK
• Guide to the Renters' Rights Act - GOV.UK