Tenancy Information

Once you have viewed the property and decided to make an application to rent, the process will be as follows.

• All applicants must provide satisfactory evidence to pass a Right to Rent check as required by law.
• You will be asked to pay a holding deposit equivalent to one week’s rent & you will be sent a draft tenancy agreement to review.
• Each applicant must complete a referencing application form and external credit check to verify the information provided. Please note this is not a guarantee of tenancy.
• If referencing is passed successfully, you will be asked to pay the security deposit.
• You will then be asked to sign the tenancy agreement.
• Finally, you will be asked to pay the first month’s rent (less the holding deposit already paid).

If you have county court judgements registered against you it may not be possible to grant you a tenancy unless satisfactory evidence of clearance of debt is produced prior to the commencement of the tenancy.

If you are unable to provide satisfactory references or credit checks, a tenancy may still be offered if a satisfactory guarantor is provided. The guarantor will be expected to sign a deed of guarantee to cover your legal commitments under the tenancy, including payment of rent if you default, and will need to provide satisfactory references and credit checks.

See below for full details of each stage.

We will conduct Right to Rent checks on all prospective adult occupants of a rental property. All applicants will be required to attend our office in person to present their identity documents. Acceptable documents are dependent on your nationality.

British Citizens: A British passport, or a combination of a valid UK driving licence and original UK birth certificate are the most common forms of identification accepted. There are a number of other acceptable documents — please contact our office for a full list.

Non-British Nationals: You will need to provide a Right to Rent Share Code and your date of birth. If you are unsure what you need to provide, please contact our office and we will be happy to assist.

We will require a Holding Deposit of one week’s rent. Upon successful application, this will form part of the first month’s rental payment.

Upon receipt of the holding deposit, Wainwrights will reserve the property for 15 calendar days to allow credit checks and referencing to be carried out, after which time Wainwrights reserve the right to re-market the property. Assuming successful referencing results, the Holding Deposit will be put towards the first month’s rental payment.

At any stage after the Holding Deposit has been paid to Wainwrights, should the applicant decide not to proceed with the property, the Holding Deposit is non-refundable. The full amount will be retained by Wainwrights.

If the application is unsuccessful having provided false or misleading information, and/or we receive an unfavourable referencing result, or the applicant or guarantor fail Right to Rent or credit checks, Wainwrights will retain the full Holding Deposit. This may also apply if the applicant fails to take all reasonable steps to provide information requested within the 15 calendar day period, for example failure to supply necessary information for credit checks.

Once referencing is successful, we will ask for deposit equivalent to the value of 5 weeks rent (example: with a rent value of £500.00 PCM, the payable deposit is £576.00).

For properties in England, the Tenant Fees Act 2019 means that in addition to rent, lettings agents can only charge tenants (or anyone acting on the tenant’s behalf) the following permitted payments:

• Holding Deposit (per tenancy): One week’s rent to reserve a property.
• Security Deposit (per tenancy, rent under £50,000 per year): Five weeks’ rent.
• Alterations to Contract (tenant request): Capped at £50 (inc. VAT) per agreed variation.
• Early Termination (tenant request): Capped at the landlord’s reasonable re-letting costs and rent due until a replacement tenancy begins.
• Utilities & Communication Services: e.g. electric, water, broadband, TV licence and council tax.
• Unpaid Rent: Interest at 3% over the Bank of England Base Rate after 14 days.
• Lost Keys or Security Devices: Charged at actual replacement cost, including locksmith and lock replacement costs where applicable.
• Contractual Damages: In the event of tenant default.
• Any other permitted payments under the Tenant Fees Act 2019.

Full details of all applicable fees and charges will be provided to you before entering into a tenancy agreement.

Wainwrights are a member of the Client Money Protection Scheme (CMP) Membership Number: C0137656. Any client’s money that we hold is protected. This insurance scheme ensures that your money is handled in the correct manner. Download CMP certificate.

Wainwrights are registered members of The Property Redress Scheme (PRS). Membership Number: PRS0396667. Download PRS certificate.

Click here for the PropertyMark Membership Rules and Conduct.

This is an Office of Fair Trading redress scheme for consumer complaints. You can find out more information on their website: https://www.theprs.co.uk/or a hard copy of the Code of Practice is available in our office along with our internal complaints procedure Click here for internal complaints procedure.