Early termination agreed by landlord, but agent charging high “early termination fees”

londonresident1

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for advice on whether the charges I’m being asked to pay for early termination are lawful under the Tenant Fees Act 2019.

Background

• I have a 2‑year fixed term AST starting 21 June 2025 and ending 20 June 2027.
• The contract contains a break clause only after 12 months, i.e. 21 June 2026, with 2 months’ notice.
• Despite this, on 10 November 2025, I contacted the managing agent CBRE requesting early termination for personal reasons, proposing 30 April 2026 as my last day.
• This gave ~5.66 months’ notice, well beyond what the break clause would later require.
• CBRE forwarded the request to the landlord.
• The landlord agreed to early termination on 30 April 2026.

So far, so good.

The problem

After the landlord’s agreement, CBRE sent me the following “early termination costs”:

• Lettings fee – £301
• Admin fee – £390
• Check‑in / Check‑out fees – £360
• Referencing fees – £60 per person

My concerns

1. None of these fees are specified in my tenancy agreement as payable by the tenant on early termination.
2. These appear to be standard end‑of‑tenancy / re‑letting costs, which the landlord would have incurred anyway if the tenancy ended naturally on 21 June 2026.
3. Under Schedule 1, Paragraph 7 of the Tenant Fees Act 2019, payments for early termination:
   • Must not exceed the landlord’s actual loss, or the agent’s reasonable costs, and
   • Cannot include costs the landlord would have incurred anyway.
4. The Tenant Fees Act also bans:
   • Check‑out fees
   • Referencing fees
   • General admin fees
     unless they represent a genuine additional loss caused solely by early termination.

My understanding is that:

• Only incremental costs caused specifically by my early exit are potentially recoverable.
• There should be no double recovery, and no shifting of normal business costs to the tenant.

Question

Are these charges lawful under the Tenant Fees Act, and what is the best way to challenge them?
Has anyone dealt with CBRE or similar agents in this situation?

Thanks in advance.

saajan_12

But they are incurring them earlier than they otherwise would have. Essentially the similar costs they faced at the start of your tenancy should have lasted them at least 12 months, but will now only last them 10 months.

You certainly shouldn't pay more than the 2 months rent would have been. You could also argue only 2/12 of the cost rather than the whole thing, but this isn't guaranteed.

subjecttocontract

When the landlord agreed to let the property to you be would have incurred costs. But these were mitigated over the 2 years of the contract. Now you have decided to leave early those costs are not fully mitigated so he is entitled to make a charge. You signed a contract and want to break it so you need to pay.

Albermarle

You probably need to pay, but that does not stop you arguing a case for reducing the costs.

So negotiate- be firm but polite.

subjecttocontract

Another way to look at the situation is.....let's say it cost your landlord £1200 in upfront costs to let you move in. Over a 2 year contract that's £50 a month ie £50 of each months rent payment you make is paying the landlord back his upfront costs. If you surrender the tenancy after 10 months you owe him £700 (14 months @ £50 ).

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6653555/early-termination-agreed-by-landlord-but-agent-charging-high-early-termination-fees

None of the actual values for the fees mentioned look to be abnormally high.

You had a contract for 24-months so, if not paid directly, those fees are spread across the anticipated contract income from 24-months. You are now ending the contract after 10 months so that is over half the costs that cannot be recovered through the respective proportion of the monthly rent.

You still might as well try to negotiate the fees down.

_Penny_Dreadful

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6653555/early-termination-agreed-by-landlord-but-agent-charging-high-early-termination-fees

1. There's no required for the AST to set out the early termination fees.
2. Yes, these very much look like the fees the landlord would need to pay CBRE if the AST was ended in a way other than your request for an early termination. However, under the Tenant Fees Act 2019 those are permitted payments to be paid to a letting agent for the early termination of the fixed term at the tenant's request. It doesn't appear as if the landlord is trying to charge you more than CBRE is charging them.
3. I've posted paragraph 7 of schedule 1 below. The landlord wouldn't be incurring those costs before the end of the fixed term had you not decided to terminate the tenancy early.

If you want to challenge the fees put forward to you then the first port of call should be the landlord using the address for the serving of notices given in your tenancy agreement. I'd be curious what that large admin fee includes. If that's a no-go then you can escalate to local trading standards, district councils and National Trading Standards for them to take action against your landlord.