Can your letting agent keep charging you after you leave?

You've decided to leave your letting agent. Then an email arrives: because the tenant they found is still living in your property, you owe them commission for as long as the tenant stays, or a year's fees up front.

Is that right? Sometimes. It depends on what your contract says, how clearly it said it, and whether you count as a consumer.

Three ways agents charge when you leave

• Notice period. Most agreements need one to three months' written notice, and you pay fees as normal until it ends.
• Exit fee. A one-off charge for ending the agreement, sometimes called an admin or termination fee.
• Continuing commission. A charge that carries on after you've left, usually for as long as a tenant the agent introduced stays in the property. Older contracts call it a renewal fee or renewal commission.

The first two are usually fair game if they were clear when you signed. The third is where most disputes start.

What the Foxtons case decided

In 2009 the Office of Fair Trading took Foxtons to the High Court over terms that let it charge landlords commission whenever a tenant it had introduced renewed or extended, even where Foxtons did nothing to arrange it. The court found those renewal commission terms unfair, mainly because they weren't transparent. A landlord signing up wouldn't have realised they were agreeing to an open-ended bill.

The court also found unfair the terms that made landlords pay commission if they sold the property to the tenant, or that passed renewal commission on to someone who bought the property with the tenant in place. The final order stopped Foxtons relying on its renewal commission terms against consumer landlords unless it was still managing the property.

Two limits matter. The judge didn't say renewal commission is always unfair: a term that was clearly flagged and genuinely negotiated could survive. And the protection only applies to landlords who count as consumers.

Do you count as a consumer?

The rules on unfair terms now sit in the Consumer Rights Act 2015. An unfair term in a consumer contract doesn't bind the consumer.

You're a consumer if you're acting for purposes wholly or mainly outside your trade or business. An accidental landlord, letting out the flat they used to live in or a home they inherited, has a good argument. Someone running a portfolio as a business probably doesn't. There's no bright line, but in the Foxtons case nobody disputed that professional landlords fell outside the protection, while many ordinary landlords fell inside it.

Signs a term may be unfair

Read the clause and ask yourself:

• Was the charge spelled out clearly and prominently before you signed, or buried in the small print?
• Does it run open-ended, for as long as the tenant stays, with no cap?
• Do you pay it even though the agent does nothing for it?
• Does it stop you ending the agreement at all while the tenant is in place?

The more yeses, the weaker the agent's position. A clause that stops you leaving while a tenant is in place is especially hard to defend.

Fixed terms have gone, and so have many renewal triggers

Since 1 May 2026, tenancies in England roll on from month to month instead of running for fixed terms. Many renewal clauses were written around a fixed term ending and a new one being signed, so read yours closely. If it charges on a 'renewal' or 'extension', there may be nothing left to trigger it, or the agent may argue it now applies every month. Don't accept the agent's reading without checking the exact wording.

How to push back

1. Get a copy of your signed terms and any later changes. If you don't have them, ask the agent in writing.
2. Serve notice anyway, following the notice clause, so the agreement ends on time while you sort out the money.
3. Write to the agent explaining why you think the term doesn't bind you: you're a consumer, the term wasn't clear, and it charges for no work. Ask them to waive it, or make an offer to settle.
4. If they won't move, use their complaints procedure. Once you have their final response, or eight weeks have passed, you can take it to their redress scheme for free. With The Property Ombudsman, you have 12 months from the agent's final response.
5. For larger sums, get legal advice before you pay or refuse to pay.

Every letting agent in England must belong to one of two redress schemes, The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme, and must say which on its website.

Before you sign with a new agent

Read the exit terms before you sign anything. Ask three questions: how long is the notice period, is there an exit fee, and will I owe you anything after I leave? A good agent can answer each one in a sentence. When you're ready to move, our 12-week switching plan covers the rest.

This guide covers England and is general information, not legal advice.