Ardington Group — UK residential letting and

Ardington Group — UK residential letting and | ardingtongroup.com

Full management of a single let is commonly quoted at 8–15% of the monthly rent, while a let-only service typically runs 5–10% of the first month's rent plus VAT. The percentage is only half the answer: the other half is which statutory jobs — gas checks, electrical reports, deposit protection — sit inside the quote. This page lays out both halves.

ardingtongroup.comTenant fees banned in England since 1 June 2019.Client money protection mandatory for agents since 1 April 2019.

One sheet: fees, caps and statutory deadlines

The price list and the rule book on one sheet: common fees, statutory caps and recurring deadlines for a let in England.
Item	Typical figure or deadline	What it means in practice
Full management	8–15% of monthly rent	Rent collection, repairs, inspections and the compliance diary, ongoing
Let-only service	5–10% of first month's rent, plus VAT	Tenant finding, referencing and agreement; landlord manages after move-in
Holding deposit	Maximum 1 week's rent	Reserves the property while referencing is completed
Tenancy deposit, annual rent under £50,000	Maximum 5 weeks' rent	Must be protected in 1 of 3 approved schemes within 30 days
Tenancy deposit, annual rent £50,000 or more	Maximum 6 weeks' rent	Same 30-day protection and prescribed information duties
Gas safety check (CP12)	Every 12 months	Carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer
Electrical report (EICR)	At least every 5 years	Applies to new tenancies in England from 1 April 2021
Energy performance (EPC)	Minimum rating E; C proposed from 2030	Rating E required in England and Wales since 1 April 2020

The price list and the rule book on one sheet: common fees, statutory caps and recurring deadlines for a let in England.

The two halves of every quote

A management fee is a price tag stapled to a calendar; the figures below keep both in view.

When the rules changed

The key terms of this guide, drawn to one scale

What the monthly percentage actually buys

A management fee pays for a defined stack of jobs, and the stack — not the number — is what makes two quotes comparable.

At the lightest level, let-only, the agent finds a tenant, runs referencing, draws up the agreement and hands over; the fee is typically 5–10% of the first month's rent plus VAT, and everything after move-in is the landlord's.

Full management, commonly 8–15% of each month's rent, keeps the agent in the middle for the life of the tenancy: collecting rent, chasing arrears, arranging repairs and diarising the compliance deadlines set out further down this page.

Between those poles sit rent-collection variants, where the agent collects and accounts for rent but leaves maintenance and statutory compliance with the landlord. When a quote arrives, the first question is which of these three stacks it describes.

Let-only: tenant finding, referencing, agreement, then handover

Rent collection: monthly collection and statements; maintenance stays with the landlord

Full management: rent, repairs, inspections and the compliance calendar

The quote, dissected in three parts

How a quote is built, line by line

Most quotes combine a percentage of rent with fixed charges for defined events, and the percentage model dominates because it scales with the rent.

The headline number is usually a percentage: 8–15% of monthly rent for full management, or 5–10% of the first month's rent plus VAT for let-only. A flat per-property figure sometimes appears instead, but the percentage model dominates.

What the percentage must not do, in England, is quietly reappear on the tenant's side. Since 1 June 2019 the Tenant Fees Act has banned most tenant-facing fees; the holding deposit is capped at one week's rent and the tenancy deposit at five or six weeks, depending on the annual rent.

Because the ban removed a revenue line, the landlord's management fee is now where the full cost of compliance work tends to sit — one more reason two quotes can differ without either being wrong.

The compliance calendar a manager is paid to run

Five statutory checks recur on fixed cycles, and a full-management fee normally includes diarising all of them.

Gas first: a CP12 safety check by a Gas Safe registered engineer is due every 12 months. Alongside it, an Electrical Installation Condition Report is required at least every five years in England's private rented sector, a rule that reached new tenancies from 1 April 2021.

The property's energy performance certificate must show at least an E rating — the floor in force in England and Wales since 1 April 2020 — and government proposals would raise that minimum to C from 2030.

Alarm rules were amended from 1 October 2022: a smoke alarm on every storey, and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker.

Taking a deposit: the first 30 days in order

The deposit rules run on a strict clock, and each step has a named failure that landlords most often trip over.

Deposit protection is the part of the rule book with the shortest fuse: everything below happens inside the first month of the tenancy, and the order matters because each step assumes the last one happened.

The 30 days run from the money being received, not from the move-in date — a distinction that catches landlords who take the deposit early and diarise late.

The statute names the deadline but not the excuses. The failures listed beside each step are the ones that surface most often in deposit disputes, and every one of them is avoidable with a diary entry.

Step 1 — Take a holding deposit of no more than 1 week's rent to reserve the property. Failure: an over-cap holding deposit.
Step 2 — Agree the tenancy and collect the first month's rent plus a tenancy deposit capped at 5 weeks' rent, or 6 weeks where annual rent is £50,000 or more. Failure: a deposit over the statutory cap.
Step 3 — Within 30 days of receiving the money, protect it in 1 of the 3 government-approved schemes. Failure: an unprotected deposit.
Step 4 — Within the same 30 days, serve the prescribed information on the tenant. Failure: late or missing prescribed information.
Step 5 — Before move-in, confirm the CP12, EICR, EPC and alarm positions are all current. Failure: an expired certificate at check-in.

Questions landlords actually ask

Is 12% a fair quote for full management?

It sits inside the commonly quoted 8–15% range, so the number alone is not a red flag. What decides fairness is the service list: check whether repairs coordination, inspections and the gas, electrical and EPC deadlines are included or charged on top.

Why is one agent so much cheaper than another?

Usually because the cheaper quote is let-only or rent-collection, not full management. Let-only typically costs 5–10% of the first month's rent plus VAT and ends at move-in; full management keeps working — and charging — for the life of the tenancy.

Can the agent bill the tenant for referencing or check-in?

No. In England most tenant-facing fees have been banned since 1 June 2019 under the Tenant Fees Act 2019. The holding deposit is capped at one week's rent and the tenancy deposit at five or six weeks, and that is where tenant-side costs stop.

If an agent manages the flat, who keeps track of the gas certificate?

Tracking it is normally part of what a full-management fee buys, but the legal cycle — a CP12 every 12 months by a Gas Safe registered engineer — applies to the property whoever collects the rent. The same goes for the five-year EICR and the EPC floor.