Letting · 25 June 2026 · 3 min read
Moving-in costs for tenants, line by line
Holding deposit, deposit, first month's rent. What you pay to rent a home through us, when you pay it, and what the law no longer lets any agent charge.
Renting a home in England costs less up front than it did before 2019, when the Tenant Fees Act banned the admin, referencing and check-out fees agents used to add. Here is everything you will pay us, and when.
To reserve the home: one week’s rent
Once your application is accepted we ask for a holding deposit of one week’s rent. That is the monthly rent multiplied by twelve and divided by fifty-two: £380 on a £1,650 home. It takes the property off the market while we reference you, and it goes towards your first month’s rent when you sign.
Before you move in: deposit and first month
The tenancy deposit is five weeks’ rent (six if the annual rent is over £50,000). We register it with a government-approved protection scheme within 30 days and send you the certificate. You also pay the first month’s rent in advance.
On a £1,650 home that is £1,903 deposit plus £1,650 rent, less the £380 already paid: £3,173 on the day you sign.
What you will not pay
No referencing fee, no admin fee, no inventory fee, no check-out fee. The only other charges the law allows are for things you cause: a lost key, a late rent payment beyond 14 days, or a change you ask for to the tenancy agreement (capped at £50).
Passing referencing
We look for an annual income of about 30 times the monthly rent, so £49,500 for a £1,650 home, either on your own or combined with a guarantor. Every rental listing on our site shows the figure for that home.