Ever since Chancellor Philip Hammond delivered the Autumn Statement of 2016, there has been a furore of talks over letting agent fees, whether it’s fair for tenants to pay and how much if so…Â

Almost immediately, everybody realised that letting fees aren’t going to magically disappear and that if tenants were to get their way, there was a tough fight ahead. The Tenants’ Voice has been covering closely the debate over letting agent fees.

The government decided to go down with a full consultation before drafting a bill. Agents spoke fiercely against the ban, as everyone knew they would. Landlords kept shut and hoped it wouldn’t land on their door.

Her Majesty The Queen spoke in favour of tenants and banning letting agent fees in her speech to both Houses of Parliament (June 21st, 2017).

Last November the government published the draft bill, announcing the ban on letting fees, caps on holding deposits and other long-awaited regulations for the property industry. It looked like the win every tenant was waiting for.

We could almost taste the end of letting fees, but this was just a step in a rather extensive legislative process. In fact, last month it was made very clear that the implementation of the ban would happen no earlier than April 2019.

1. First, Draft Bill Committee has to conduct hearings and consider a long list of evidence before passing their recommendations to the ministers.
2. Then, the bill needs to be finalised and dragged all the way through Parliament and finally signed a law by The Queen.
3. And then, the Government would still need a secondary legislation, which has to go a similar route, before the ban could come into effect.

A couple of months ago, we published another piece giving more insight into the viewpoints of agents, landlords and tenants and offering a middle ground solution. More agents than expected agreed that meeting halfway would be the least disruptive solution.