Agent Instruction Form: How to Keep Your Letting Agent Compliant in England

Why Landlords Need a Written Agent Instruction

Most landlords who use a letting agent assume the agent carries all the compliance risk. That assumption is wrong. Section 56 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 applies to landlords and people acting on their behalf. If your agent verbally encourages an applicant to bid higher during a viewing or publishes your property at two different prices, a local authority may penalize whichever people it finds responsible. A penalty can be up to £7,000; a repeat breach of the same provision within five years can attract an additional penalty.

A written Agent Instruction Form cannot guarantee that the landlord will avoid liability. The local authority decides which people are responsible; the form records the instructions and compliance steps the landlord took. It also does two things that matter:

1. It sets clear boundaries your agent must follow, reducing the chance of a breach happening in the first place
2. It records the steps you took to prevent a breach; the authority assesses responsibility and any penalty based on the evidence

What the Form Should Cover

A practical Agent Instruction Form for a post-May 2026 letting addresses six areas:

Advertised rent. The form should state the exact asking rent and instruct the agent to publish that figure — and only that figure — across every marketing channel. No price ranges, no "offers in excess of," no rounding to a different figure on different portals. If the rent changes, the landlord issues an updated instruction before any new advertisements go live.

Bidding prohibition. The agent must decline any offer above the advertised rent, whether written or verbal, whether initiated by the applicant or prompted by the agent. The form should include a script for declining overbids: "The rent is £[amount] per calendar month as advertised. We cannot accept a higher amount."

Viewing conduct. The agent must not mention competing interest, other applicants' financial circumstances, or the possibility of a higher rent during viewings. The instruction should specify that viewing staff have read and understood the bidding ban rules.

Applicant selection criteria. The form should attach the landlord's written selection criteria (affordability ratio, reference requirements, Right to Rent status) and instruct the agent to apply them consistently to every applicant. The agent must not apply blanket "No DSS" or "No Children" filters at the shortlisting stage.

Payment sequencing. The agent must not collect rent in advance before the tenancy agreement is signed. In the pre-tenancy period after signing, the agent must not collect more than one month's rent, or more than 28 days' rent where rent is paid more frequently than monthly, and must not collect a holding deposit exceeding one week's rent.

Record keeping. The form should require the agent to retain copies of all advertisements, applicant communications, viewing notes, and selection decisions, and provide them to the landlord on request.

When to Issue It

The instruction form goes to the agent before the property is marketed — not after. It is part of the letting instruction, alongside the rent figure, the marketing brief, and the target tenant profile.

If you change the asking rent mid-marketing, issue an updated instruction confirming the new figure and requiring all live advertisements to be amended before any applicant is contacted at the new price.

For landlords who use a tenant-find service (the agent markets and finds the tenant but does not manage the tenancy), the instruction form is especially important because the agent's work is concentrated in the high-risk advertising and selection phase.

What It Does Not Do

The instruction form is not a substitute for the agency agreement or the terms of business between you and your agent. It supplements them. The agency agreement covers fees, marketing scope, and termination. The instruction form covers compliance conduct — what the agent must and must not say, do, or accept during the letting process.

It also does not create a contractual indemnity. If you want the agent to bear financial responsibility for their own breaches, that needs a separate indemnity clause in the agency agreement — and most agents will resist it.

Checking Your Agent's Compliance

Issue the instruction, then verify:

• Advert audit: search every portal where the property is listed and check the rent figure matches. Do this within 48 hours of the advert going live and again if you change the rent.
• Viewing debrief: after each viewing, ask the agent for a brief written report. Did any applicant offer above asking? How did the agent respond?
• Application review: before the agent makes an offer, review the shortlist and the selection criteria used. Check that benefit claimants and families were assessed against the same thresholds as other applicants.

The Advertising and Choosing Tenants in England guide includes a ready-made Agent Instruction Form and an Advert Compliance Record — printable templates that cover the instruction, the advert audit, and the viewing debrief in a single compliance file.

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