What Should a Fully Managed Letting Agent Do?

Paying a letting agent a management fee every month should feel like a genuine exchange. You hand over responsibility; they handle it. But for a significant number of landlords, the reality falls some way short of that. Rent gets collected, the odd repair gets logged, and not much else happens unless the landlord chases it. That is not fully managed lettings. It is rent collection dressed up in different packaging.

So what should a fully managed service actually look like? And how do you know if you are getting it?

The Basics: What Full Management Should Cover

A fully managed letting service is designed to take the day-to-day running of a tenancy off the landlord’s hands. According to the NRLA, around 49% of UK landlords use an agent for at least part of their property management (NRLA, 2023), and for many, full management is the reason they can hold a property without it consuming significant time each month.

At a minimum, a fully managed service should include:

• Rent collection and arrears management: The agent collects rent, monitors payments, identifies problems early, and takes appropriate action where arrears arise. You should not be discovering a missed payment weeks after the fact.
• Maintenance coordination: Tenants need a clear route to report problems. The agent should assess the issue, instruct appropriate contractors, and follow the repair through to resolution. Logging a repair and forgetting it is not management.
• Regular property inspections: Periodic visits to the property, with written reports, give you an up-to-date picture of its condition. These visits can catch problems before they become expensive and give both landlord and agent early warning of anything that needs attention.
• Tenant communication: The agent acts as the main point of contact for your tenant. Day-to-day queries, maintenance requests, access arrangements, and tenancy questions all go through the agent, not the landlord.
• Compliance support: This is increasingly the area where the difference between a good agent and a poor one is most visible.

Compliance: The Part That Has Changed Most

Landlord compliance obligations have grown substantially over recent years, and the pace of change has accelerated. A managing agent should not be working from a checklist that was accurate three years ago.

The areas your agent should be actively tracking include:

• Gas safety: a valid Gas Safe certificate must be in place and renewed annually. Breaches are a criminal matter pursued by the Health and Safety Executive.
• Electrical safety: an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) is required at least every five years for privately rented properties in England. Non-compliance can attract a civil penalty of up to £30,000 (gov.uk, 2025).
• Energy Performance: the government has signalled upcoming changes to minimum EPC standards, and landlords should be keeping an eye on how those proposals develop.
• Deposit protection: deposits must be registered with an approved scheme within 30 days of receipt, and the prescribed information must be served on the tenant.
• Required tenancy documentation: the How to Rent guide, gas safety certificate, EICR, and EPC must all be provided at the outset of a tenancy. Failure to serve these correctly can affect a landlord’s ability to recover possession.

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025

The single biggest compliance shift for landlords and their agents right now is the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, which came into force on 1 May 2026. The changes are significant enough that any managing agent who has not updated their processes accordingly is already operating outside current law.

The key changes your agent must now be managing on your behalf:

• Section 21 abolished: No-fault evictions are no longer available. Possession must now be sought through Section 8 grounds, which means the grounds must be properly established and evidenced.
• No more fixed-term ASTs: All tenancies are now periodic from the outset. The assured shorthold tenancy as a legal structure no longer exists for new or existing tenancies.
• Rent increases: These can only happen once every 12 months, via a Section 13 notice with at least two months’ notice. Tenants have the right to challenge any increase at the First-tier Tribunal.
• Pet requests: Tenants now have a statutory right to request permission to keep a pet. Landlords cannot unreasonably refuse, and a response must be given within 28 days.
• Fixed asking price: Rent bidding is prohibited. Properties must be marketed at a fixed price, and accepting offers above that figure is a compliance breach, not just a commercial decision.

The financial consequences of getting this wrong are serious. Civil penalties under the Act can reach £7,000 for a breach and up to £40,000 for a serious or repeated offence (gov.uk, 2026). A managing agent who does not understand these changes is not just inconvenient; they are a liability.

Rent Advice: More Than Just a Number

A good managing agent should be able to give you informed, evidence-based advice on what your property should be achieving in rent. That means understanding comparable properties in the area, current demand conditions, and the state of the existing tenancy.

UK rental growth has slowed considerably. Average rents for new lets rose by around 2.1% in April 2026, compared with 2.6% a year earlier, and rental supply has increased by roughly 15%, giving tenants more choice and extending average letting times to around 17 days (Zoopla, 2026). In that environment, pricing accuracy matters more, not less, particularly now that rent bidding is prohibited and marketing at the wrong figure has compliance implications as well as commercial ones.

Good rent advice considers the landlord’s overall position. Sometimes the right recommendation is to hold the current rent and retain a reliable tenant. An agent who pushes for the maximum figure at every review, without regard for the tenancy relationship or market conditions, is not acting in your interest.

Access, Inspections, and Keeping You Informed

A managing agent should coordinate access with the tenant for inspections, maintenance visits, and any other legitimate appointments. Tenants must be given proper notice, and the agent should confirm that appointments have taken place and follow up on anything identified.

More broadly, you should not have to chase your agent to find out what is happening with your own property. If a repair is delayed, you should know why. If an inspection flags something, you should receive a clear report. If the tenant raises a concern that affects the property or the tenancy, you should be told.

Being disconnected from your own property is not the same as being hands-off. A landlord who has genuinely handed over management should still receive regular, clear communication. They simply should not be doing the work themselves.

What to Ask Your Agent

If you are unsure whether your current service matches what you are paying for, these questions are reasonable to put directly to your agent:

• Who is responsible for the day-to-day management of my property?
• How often are inspections carried out, and what do the reports look like?
• How do tenants report maintenance, and who follows it through to completion?
• How quickly will I be told if rent is late?
• How are you managing the changes introduced by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025?
• Who do I contact if there is a serious problem out of hours?

If those questions are difficult to answer clearly and promptly, that tells you something important about the service.

On Cost: Value Is Not the Same as Cheap

Full management fees typically run between 10% and 15% of monthly rent, with regional variation: in the Midlands, 8% to 12% is common, while London agents frequently charge 12% to 15% (industry data, 2025). VAT applies where the agent is registered.

The cheapest option is not automatically the best one. Poor maintenance follow-through leads to larger repair bills. Missed compliance obligations lead to penalties. Weak tenant communication damages tenancy relationships. For landlords, the cost of a poor management service often exceeds the saving on the fee.

If Your Current Agent Is Not Delivering

You do not necessarily have to wait for the tenancy to end before switching agents. Management can transfer to another agent while the tenant remains in the property and the tenancy continues. The first step is to review your current agency agreement and understand any notice or termination provisions.

Partridge Homes operates a service called Simply Switch, designed specifically for landlords who want to move management of their property from another agent. We guide the transfer, review the tenancy and property documentation, and aim to make the process as straightforward as possible for both landlord and tenant.

If your current fully managed service is leaving you with more work than it should, Partridge Homes would be glad to explain what our management service covers and how Simply Switch works in practice. You can reach us through our contact page or speak to the team directly about your property in Birmingham or Solihull.