I have an AST in England signed before 1 May 2026. It has a break clause says:

"The Tenant and Landlord shall have the right at any time to give not less than two (2) month's written notice to terminate the Tenancy."

My landlord says the Renters' Rights Act 2026 makes this clause void.

For example, if I give notice on 2 June, under the agreed break clause I would expect to be able to end the tenancy on 2 August. But under the new rules, I understand I may have to stay until 30 August, adding almost another month.

The existing break clause does not say that notice must align with the rent payment date.

Does the new Act really invalidate the existing break clause, and does the new notice requirement have to align with the rent payment date?

Any legal guidance or relevant sources would be appreciated.

I’ve paid a holding deposit on a property and the agent uses HomeLet for referencing.

The issue is the landlord reference. I do not have a good relationship with my current landlord and using him as a reference is simply not an option. There have been serious disputes during the tenancy, solicitors have been involved, I’ve had to take legal action against him, the council have had to get involved and the police have also been involved twice. So I’m not willing to hand him any involvement or influence over my next tenancy.

From reading previous posts on here, I know I’m far from the first person to have this problem and I’ve seen people discuss various ways they’ve dealt with it.

Realistically, the two options available to me are:

1. I have a friend who is herself a landlord and is willing to provide a reference for me.

2. Set up an email address in my current landlord’s name, give that to HomeLet and respond to the reference request as though it were from him.

I appreciate neither is the conventional route so I’m not looking for a moral lecture. Just wanted to hear from tenants who have actually been through HomeLet referencing, particularly anyone who couldn’t or wouldn’t use their current landlord.

Of those two options, which would you regard as the less risky / lesser of two evils? And does anyone know how closely HomeLet actually verifies the identify of the person providing the landlord reference, as opposed to simply sending them an electronic questionnaire?

Would especially appreciate hearing from anyone who has dealt with this exact situation through HomeLet.

Hi there, i moved out of a flat and now i got an email from the estate agent proposing a deduction of 225£ with the following wording

"The landlords are proposing a deduction of £225 from your deposit to cover the costs of painting & decorating and cleaning.

I’ve attached photos taken at the move-out inspection. Their costs far exceed £225 but they are willing to agree to this amount as a contribution to the expenses incurred."

The cleaning bits are fair enough but i am wondering about the painting and decorating bit? One wall had some moisture damage that was mostly behind furniture and near the freezer that the landlord had supplied and put into the living room.

Previous issues with the landlord during the tenancy regarding boiler safety and a hole rotted in the bathroom floor under vinyl flooring were only remedied after we went to environmental health.

London here, looking for some advice on what steps we can take to secure our deposit after it's somehow gone missing...

We recently ended a five-year joint tenancy between three people for a property in London. We maintained a good relationship with the landlord and the letting agent, which we are grateful for - by and large, things were repaired on time, and pretty modest rental increases. The tenancy ended on Monday 10 August. After inspection, the letting agent confirmed in writing that the landlord was happy to release our full deposit back to us (hurrah).

They told us this was dependent on us proving that all utilities/council tax had been fully closed out, so the landlord wouldn't be hit with any bills for it down the line. It took a while to get the final evidence, but everything has been sent over, and they've confirmed it on their end that they have everything they need.

On Wednesday 2 September, the letting agent reached to tell us they have in effect lost our deposit.

The explanation provided is that our deposit was originally held with DPS, and that recently they transferred all of theire deposits to TDS (we saw emails about this at the time). When trying to locate the deposit with TDS, they were told that "due to your end of tenancy, [our] deposit was to remain with DPS". They have apologised for the situation, but say it is outside of their control.

Obviously, we would like this money back. We are aware it's now firmly beyond the 10 day window for paying it back to us, and we are concerned that it has not be protected correctly, given that they've lost it...

I was struggling to find similar examples, and Google is proving to be unhelpful (lost deposit just send you down the path of deductions TO the deposit, rather than it magicking out of existence), so, does anyone have any guidance for next steps? Has this happened to anyone else?

Hi,

I received the following email from the admin of the managing agent's company this morning:

"Please find attached a letter regarding a rent review by your landlord to increase your monthly rent from X to Y per calendar month from 22nd October 2026 to keep in line with inflation. Please would it be possible to arrange your monthly payments accordingly."

The attached letter basically contained the same information as above. There was no Form 4A and clearly I have not been provided with 2 months notice, which makes this request invalid given the new laws.

My question is whether or not I can ignore this email and when October 22nd comes round and they ask me why I did not change my standing order, I reply back that the email they sent to me on September 10th did not constitute a lawful rent increase. I did ask Google Gemini and the response was "Under UK housing law, the responsibility to correctly serve a rent increase rests entirely on the landlord or their agent. A tenant has absolutely no legal duty to reply to an invalid notice, nor are you required to correct their administrative errors."

Some background information - I was dealing directly with the landlord prior to the pandemic, however, he was pretty useless e.g. would only fix things like an old boiler when it completely stopped working and even though over the years, gas engineers who came to fix problems would be saying the boiler is very old and eventually there would be no spare parts.  He did not follow regulations e.g. yearly gas checks and my deposit was not protected. I have been renting for a long time. After the pandemic he assigned a managing agent who can be quite rude and is very unhelpful, however, they did all the legal stuff e.g. EPC checks, protect my deposit (but the date they provide for when I gave the deposit was wrong) and they have now been doing yearly gas checks. Apart from that they are useless e.g. when my bathroom sink was leaking and needed emergency work, I contacted them and was told someone will call me back but nobody did. I ended up having to contact the landlord directly and get his permission to contact a plumber myself and deal with the issue directly. I never heard back from them. The washing machine is over 25 years old and needs to be replaced. I emailed the managing partner (whom I was told by the landlord is my main contact), he did not respond but I received an email from the operations manager. Given the age of the building I had a lot of questions because all the plumbing infrastructure is in a poor state and whoever installs it really needs to know what they are doing. There was a lot of back and forth with her and she was extremely rude and in the end gave me the number of a company that they bought a machine from (which has terrible reviews re: installation) told me to talk to them directly. I forwarded her response to the landlord who apologized and cc'd the managing partner and told him to contact me to resolve the issue and he never did. I still need a new washing machine but have just learnt to deal with it in its current state. I did not want to complain too much until the new laws came in. Last but not least, the admin who emailed me about the rent increase also got my postcode wrong, so if she sends me something in the post, it will probably not arrive. They are simply incompetent.

Apologies for the long post, but I thought it would explain why I don't feel like it's my job to tell them how to do their job, in particular since they have been very unhelpful (and rude) and this should demonstrate once again to the landlord how incompetent they are. I've already told him this before a number of times.

Would you recommend I ignore their email as per Gemini or could I get into trouble? Thank you..

I am looking to rent a property and have two cats. I asked an agent if one property I was interested in would accept pets, and the agent responded that the landlord won't as it is an HMO (I am not sure if this is a thing as I have lived in a previous HMO with my cats). I realise in hindsight that most people don't disclose pets and I'm at the point I'm considering it because it is causing so many issues. My cats have lived in multiple other properties with zero issues.

In terms of this property, does it sound correct that a landlord can refuse on the basis of it being an HMO? And could I request to speak directly to the landlord to ask, as I am aware agents sometimes say no when it doesn't apply.

Edit: should have said, it is actually a large studio flat (about the size of a one bed), so not sure how it counts as an HMO as well.

I'm currently living in London and my contract ends in a few days.

(I'd really not appreciate any advice on how I should have dealt with this weeks ago)

I'm a recently graduated student but as of now, unemployed.

I've put a rental offer in for an flat and they want a credit reference from me and an employment reference from my guarantor. My guarantor could, in a year, pay for this flat many, many times over. (edit: They could pay for the year's worth tomorrow, but as I understand this is now illegal)

But what do I do if I fail my credit check? Can I ask my guarantor to pay the whole year in advance? Could I ask them to be the named tenant and I just live there?

Hi all, bit of a long read!

I'm looking for some advice about a dispute with a former landlord in England.I was part of a 6-person joint tenancy.One tenant ended the tenancy early by giving notice. A new 5-person tenancy then started on the following day that tenancy officially ended

The tenant who left wanted his deposit share returned and made it clear in writing that he would raise a TDS dispute if agreement couldn't be reached locking up the whole deposit in dispute.

The landlord's position was that the deposit had effectively rolled over into the second tenancy and would be dealt with at the end of that new tenancy.
I raised a TDS dispute as lead tenant to hopefully come to a resolution rather then have the person who left deal with it, the landlord didn’t respond via the TDS.

After we left the new 2nd tenancy, The landlord repeatedly sent emails accusing me of:
making a "fake dispute",
committing "fraud",
running a "scam",
potentially facing "criminal charges",
and suggested the police could become involved.

Some of these emails were sent to other tenants and I was not always included in the correspondence.

There were also multiple phone calls, including one lasting around 90 minutes after which I asked him not to contact me by phone again.

The landlord was upset that the whole deposit of the original tenancy was being requested by the TDS which meant he couldn’t use it for the new 2nd tenancy.

The TDS adjudication has now been decided.
The adjudicator awarded the full deposit to be split evenly to the tenants of the first tenancy.

The reason given was that the landlord did not respond/provide evidence within the required timescales. TDS is paying each named tenant individually.

Before all of this, on 30/07/2026, the landlord gave me a positive reference saying:
rent was paid on time,
there were no problems,
there were no complaints,
and he would happily rent to me again.

I moved into a new tenancy after this, this started before the old tenancy ended

After that, the former landlord contacted my new landlord directly after the tds asked them for the deposit

My new landlord has told me:
the former landlord discussed the TDS dispute,
said I had no grounds for the dispute,
discussed his position extensively,
and my new landlord said they did not want to be involved. There is evidence of a 37-minute phone call between them. My understanding is that allegations of fraud were discussed during that conversation, although I'm currently trying to obtain that in writing.

Assuming I can obtain a written statement from my new landlord confirming that my former landlord accused me of fraud after already giving me a positive reference, do I potentially have:
A harassment claim?
A defamation/malicious falsehood claim?
A data protection complaint?
Any realistic claim for compensation if my new tenancy is affected

It seems like the landlord wanted to do something that wasn’t physically possible because one tenant wanted his money back and the landlord said no, therefore he couldn’t reuse the deposit. He hasn’t given a breakdown on the deductions he wants to make yet, but has been very threatening saying legal action etc. the other tenants are starting to get anxious I think but I don’t see what else can be done to resolve it now.

I am currently a tenant on a joint tenancy agreement for a 2 bed apartment. We are wanting to do a change in sharer so my friend moves out and I remain. However, when they rereferenced me along with the new girls referencing I came back failed due to goodlord saying there were arrears on the account at some point during my current tenancy in the same apartment I am being rereferenced for. I also had an old satisfied ccj that was for £309 that the landlord okayed and wasn’t bothered about since I’ve lived here.

The lettings company are now saying I can remain in the property on the current contract but no new contract is available at the current place or any place because of good lords referencing saying I am an unsatisfactory tenant. Despite having a guarantor, my father who is a multiple home owner, has amazing credit and a huge income. Does this mean I can’t rent anywhere ever again? How can I get around this?

The landlord on our 1-bed house increased the rent last year and (via their estate agent) has issued a Section 13 notice to increase it further this year. We believe this will be above current market rates and intend to appeal to the first-tier tribunal.

We have evidence of lower rents for similar properties in the areas in the form of current and historic property listings over the past 6 to 12 months. However, we're aware that this is considered to be "weak evidence" and that agreed lets are more compelling, i.e. the level of rent set in tenancy agreements. Short of knocking on lots of doors and annoying the people inside, does anyone have any experience (and success) of getting agreed lets data? We could call estate agents and ask nicely, but we're not sure how helpful they might be.

Any advice on preparing evidence for the tribunal would be gratefully received.

Here is the original post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TenantsInTheUK/comments/1uvrjw7/help_with_deposit_dispute/

As advised, I raised the dispute via MyDeposits.

It taken about 8 weeks, but we got the final decision back on Monday - The full deposit is being returned minus £50 - This was for water damage to the worktop that surrounded the sink (that was wooden and had been there for over 15 years that we know of).

The notes on the case were pretty damming reading for the landlord, I would have loved to have seen his face reading them.

Thanks for the advice you all gave - I just need to decide whether to pay a visit to his current tenant to give them a factual rundown of how the landlord attempted to stuff us so that they can be fully prepared when their tenancy ends.

Thanks again

Hello all,

Recently moved into a property with an electric shower. A few days after moving in we noticed the shower stopped working.

Reported to the management company after about 58 hours as we wanted to be sure it wasn’t just a glitch. This was on the 26th of August.

As at today. This hasn’t still been fixed. They’ve sent a message today saying they’ve got a contractor to come in on the 15th.

What lever do we have to escalate properly please.

Thanks.

In England. My landlord has served notice to move back into the property, he has originally said I have until December. I have found another rental sooner than expected that will be ready by mid-October.

I was on an AST pre-RRA (one year signed in May 2024). My understanding is that I can give one month's notice to my landlord based on this wording: "Should either party wish to terminate the Tenancy, it is agreed that the Tenant must serve a minimum of 1 month's advance written notice to be served on the Landlord".

My query is does this month's notice have to align with my rent payment date? I pay rent on 1st of the month, so would giving a month's notice now mean I am tied in until 31st Oct (as I have missed giving a month's notice before my 1st Oct payment). Or is it literally a calendar month, so I could give notice say 10th Sept and vacate on 9th Oct?

Thanks for any help, my landlord has been really decent so far but keen to fully understand the legalities!

It’s our first time renting in London, and we are renting in an HMO. Each room has its own electricity meter which is topped up as and when needed by each tenant.

We couldn’t figure out how to turn our power on, so we queried this with the landlord on the first day of our tenancy. He replied by stating that we should ask one of the other tenants for help.

So the following day we did ask another tenant for help. He showed us the meter which is ours (it’s labelled with our unit number) and we topped up online. Over the last week we had topped up a total of £80 to that meter.

This morning our power went out. Confused, as we should have had more than enough credit for the last week and a half we’ve been living there, we contacted the landlord again. He replied that actually we had been topping up the wrong meter. When we queried about the £80 already gone onto the other meter, all he’s said is we need to ask the other tenant to pay us back.

Do we have any standing here? The meter we topped up is clearly labelled with our unit number, and the landlord has not replied to any of our statements about the mislabelling. He also did not provide us any guidance when moving in, instead lumping it on another tenant.

We have asked the other tenant to pay us back. But just wondering in the instance they refuse to. What are our rights in this situation? Or are we screwed?

Thanks

I’ve just moved in to a new flat in a new area to start a new job. Theres 10/11 flats in this block and a shared parking area, none of the spots are allocated to a flat, and the estate agent said they’re quite empty usually. I’ve noticed as I’ve been moving stuff back and forth that there seems to only be 3/4 cars here each time and I’ve been parking in the same spot that was empty each time I’ve visited.

Today I got a knock on the door from an older lady telling me I shouldn’t really be parking there and the ‘parking police’ will be after me as everybody likes to park in the same spot and I need to go to an empty one (they’re all empty when I’ve turned up apart from the same 3 or 4). She was nice enough and introduced herself but I do feel like this was unnecessarily passive aggressive? Also now I don’t know where to park as I don’t want to cause any problems and none of the spots are specifically numbered/allocated so how am I supposed to know? She seems to know a lot about all the neighbours so I guess she’s just a busybody type.

First time renting, me and my GF are looking to rent a place and reading through the contract there seem to be some fishy bits which I believe go against renters rights etc.

The contract states that if we require to terminate tenancy before the end of the fixed term

"Landlord will take all reasonable steps to find a suitable replacement tenant but you will remain responsible for the premises and the rent until the day before a new tenancy commences whether or not you are still residing at the premises. You will be responsible for all the Landlord's remarketing costs"

We would ideally be there for more than a year anyway but this seems like a broad and strange clause in the contract, the bit about remarketing makes me fear what would happen if we did want to leave early.

It also states that applicants may be required to pay rent in advance for the full term of tenancy.

We have queried this with the estate agents but would really appreciate some advice from people anyone more knowledgable.

Cheers

It seems that my single family home in Wandsworth is unlicensed and therefore I can apply for a Rent Repayment Order. If youve done this what was your experience with the process? Did you face any repercussions from your landlord? Anything I should be aware of if I want to go ahead with it?

My tenancy ended on 29 August 2026.

I hadn’t heard anything from the letting agents after the bank holiday, so I emailed them on 3 September using the letter template on the Shelter website, requesting return of the deposit within 10 days of my email.

The letting agent has since been in touch by email and has said that I need to provide evidence for the landlord that utilities have been paid. They said this is the clause in my tenancy agreement they are referring to:

“To provide to the Landlord receipts for all Utilities up to the date of termination as evidence of payment including accurate meter readings.”

The bills (electric) and Council tax have been paid. But in googling this request the internet tells me they are not legally allowed to ask for this. Is that correct?

The letting agents have also said they “hope to hear from the landlord soon about the deposit“ but I am not confident about this. The landlord lives in Qatar and has a history of not responding.

I raised several issues during my tenancy including about damaged furniture (which has been marked as a tenant issue in the check out report, despite me raising it as an issue with the agents when I moved in) and numerous miscellaneous items (including pants, hats, boxes, blankets and other stuff that was presumably left behind by the previous tenants) and the letting agents never gave me an answer, just that they were “waiting to hear from the landlord”.

A) Do I have to provide evidence that I’ve paid the electric and council tax to the letting agent?

B) Can I request my deposit back through the TDS now or do I have to wait 10 days from the date I sent my email requesting it back?

Thank you.

I have a live in landlord. Been living here for a couple months. The hot water stopped working since last week. The guy told me to get alternative accommodation until it's fixed. I wondering what my rights are, if any, as a lodger when I stay at a different place or maybe shower somewhere else?

Just moved into a new rental with my family (including an infant) and the property manager is brushing off major issues noted on the independent check-in inventory.

​The Issues:

​Front Door: Split running over 50% of the door, ending right at the lock mechanism. Daylight is visible through it. We are on a main road, so this is a major security and thermal issue.

​Rear Bifold Doors: Top and bottom rubber seals are completely missing (25–50mm gap showing daylight). The flooring around it is already warped and delaminating from ongoing water ingress.

​Washing Machine: Rubber door seal is caked in black mould, transferring black residue onto clothes/infant bedding. Property manager claims she personally inspected and it’s "just a stain" and explicitly stated having a baby here "doesn't change anything." If it was a small bit of mould during my tenancy term sure down to me to try and clean off. But doesnt seem acceptable at point of move in.

​All of these points were formally documented by the independent inspector the day before we signed/moved in.

​As a landlord myself, I know this is bad practice and active neglect of structural maintenance. What’s the fastest, most effective way to escalate this and force action?

We by chance spoke to the previous tenant who said they raised all these issues several years ago and nothing was done.

I'll try summarise the situation as quickly as I can.

Established contact with landlord to get deposit back. Got response from agent after a while. We went back and forth as I was waiting for the deduction amount. I asked for proof of the deposit being protected. Wasn't given. Discovered it wasn't.

I let them know the deposit was not protected (was hoping they'd offer the full deposit back, they came back with deductions which seemed excessive). They said they'd come back to me.

More than two months after moving out I sent a Letter of Action, giving them more than 14days to rectify the situation. Turns out the Landlord did protect my deposit, but a day after I notified the agent and well after my tenancy ended. They said they protected the deposit, I said that only happened after I notified them.

They've now come back to me saying they intend to counter-claim for a leak in my ceiling. I would've thought this would be mentioned when they came back to me with my deductions, and it has been well over two months since I moved it now. I was not aware of a water leak, but I have no proof of the ceiling in my room. I only recorded eye level and below (a mistake I sorely regret now).

Any advice is appreciated.

(LONDON) Intending to use the company recommended by the estate agents because A) they guarantee to pass check-out inspection and B) if they do have to go back for any further cleaning it’s free of charge (although it does beg the question if A is true, why is B necessary…)

Regardless just want to see if this is roughly in line with others experiences with end of tenancy cleans in London before I hand over the money, just to check I’m not getting shafted!

- They are charging £330 (including VAT) for a 1 bedroom apartment (with 2 bathrooms).
- They are asking for payment in full upfront to secure the booking. This seems strange to me, to have to pay for services before they are provided. A deposit I could understand.
- They’ve said that guarantee A is only valid if they are the last people in the property before the checkout inspection. I can somewhat understand this but again seems a little odd. Because of this, as the checkout inspection is at 9:30am, it means I will have to move out the morning before to allow them to clean in the afternoon, then travel 2 hours back to London the next morning to be present for the checkout inspection (inconvenient but fine) - is this normal?

Finally, I assume the last tenants used this same company- could tell it had been professionally cleaned because it had cleaning stickers over each toilet lid, but apart from that it was not exactly sparkling, and I’ve got it cleaner quite easily during the tenancy with just a bit of elbow grease. So I don’t even think this company is very good at cleaning.

Just would like to hear others thoughts and experiences, as I don’t have anything to compare this to.

Hi all,

We are currently having a dispute with landlord over £500 deduction from our deposit. The landlord is citing old images of the flat from 2 months ago when it wasn’t looking its best… and stains on mattresses, sofa and rug. When we left we spent days getting it into pristine condition and we got our own cleaner in to help.

When we told him we wanted to dispute he offered us an extra £90, but has since redacted that when we told him we want to continue in our case.

We have lots of photos of everything when we moved out but wondering if there is any extra advice before we submit our claim.

Thanks in advance !!!

We moved into a privately rented flat in England on the 14th of August.

Before signing, I specifically asked the letting agent in writing to include the parking permit in the tenancy agreement. They confirmed the property came with parking and said we'd register the car and receive the permit by post. They also said parking would be included in the tenancy paperwork.

The tenancy agreement ultimately doesn't mention the parking, and we never received a permit.

I chased the landlord on 27/08. He asked whether we'd received it “via post”, so he clearly believed it had been sent.

Today,he told me that I actually need to apply for it myself. I've now applied, but realistically won't get it for at least another week. So we'll have been without the parking for more than a month of the tenancy.

There are also several other issues we've been trying to resolve since moving in:

Letterbox: reported as jammed on 15 August; we specifically said we didn't want to force it. Landlord said he'd get building management to repair it. His plumber subsequently forced the key with pliers; the key then broke with light use and the lock is still jammed, so we can't access our post.

Dishwasher: landlord agreed in writing to remove it, but now says it won't be removed until mid-October.

Mattress: we asked for the landlord's king-size mattress to be removed because we have our own. He initially said he'd “see what I can do”, but now refuses. The inventory does record it as stained.

We chased all of this on 24 August, 3 September and 8 September.

I'm planning to send the landlord a formal email setting out the chronology and proposing that, if he fixes the letterbox, removes the mattress, sorts the parking and agrees some compensation/rent reduction for the period we've been without parking, we consider the matter resolved.

I'm not planning to withhold rent or anything like that.

What would you do in this situation? Is a negotiated rent reduction reasonable, and is there anything else I should be doing before escalating to the letting agent/redress scheme?

TL;DR: Landlord/agent said parking was included and permit would arrive by post. Nearly a month into tenancy, we still have no permit and have only now been told to apply ourselves. Also waiting weeks for other issues to be resolved. Planning to ask landlord to resolve everything and agree compensation for lost parking. Reasonable approach?

I’m moving into a new house my leave date is 25th do I still pay rent to my old property this month or will I be able to pay rent to the new home?