Let Only Service: What's Actually Included

A let only service for London landlords is the part of the letting process that finds, vets, and moves in a suitable tenant, then hands the completed tenancy back for the landlord to run. It is the right choice for hands-on landlords who want professional sourcing and referencing without paying an ongoing management fee; it is the wrong choice for landlords who do not have the time or the appetite to handle mid-tenancy issues themselves. This guide explains exactly what a let only service covers in London, what it does not cover, how AIHPG's version differs from the high-street standard, and how to decide between let only and a full management service.

What is a let only service?

A let only service is a fixed-scope instruction that begins when a landlord signs the terms of business and ends on the day the tenant moves in. Everything that happens during the tenancy, rent collection, repairs, inspections, notices, renewals, is the landlord's responsibility. For a single property, a well-run let only service typically costs the equivalent of two to four weeks' rent, charged as a one-off fee at move-in. The exact fee varies by agent, and some agents inflate the headline price by excluding items that a competent service should always include (professional photography, inventory, safety certificates). Understanding what is actually in the package is the first step to making a fair comparison.

What's included in a let only service for London landlords

The sections below describe the stages of a complete let only service in the order they happen. When comparing quotes, make sure each of these is explicitly included rather than assumed.

Rental valuation

A competent let only starts with an accurate rental valuation, not an optimistic one. London rental pricing is unusually granular: a flat five minutes closer to a station, or one floor higher in a mansion block, can move the achievable rent by £100 or more per month. A strong valuation uses live comparables from the last 30 days, adjusts for condition and furnishing, and gives the landlord a defensible asking price that will let in two to four weeks rather than sit on Rightmove for three months.

Professional marketing and photography

The photographs, floorplan, and description are the only chance to win a viewing from a tenant who is looking at 40 other flats in the same search. Professional wide-angle photography with corrected verticals, a scaled RICS-style floorplan, and a written description that leads with the property's two strongest features are the minimum. Portals, Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket, should all be covered by default; if only one is included, the service is not complete.

Accompanied viewings

Accompanied viewings mean an agent meets each prospective tenant at the property, answers questions in person, and qualifies whether the tenant is in a position to proceed. Self-service viewings with a lockbox are cheaper to offer but produce worse outcomes: fewer offers, slower decisions, more no-shows. A let only service that includes accompanied viewings as standard is worth meaningfully more than one that does not.

Tenant referencing

Referencing is the single most important step in a let only service. It covers identity verification, right-to-rent check, employment and income verification, previous landlord reference, and a credit check. For self-employed tenants, it also involves accountant confirmation and SA302 review. The goal is not to find a perfect tenant. It is to find a tenant who can reasonably be expected to pay the rent on time for the full term, and whose previous landlord was happy to see the tenancy end cleanly.

Tenancy agreement and paperwork

The tenancy agreement must reflect the current law, which, under the Renters' Rights Act 2025, no longer uses fixed-term assured shorthold wording. The How to Rent guide must be served, right-to-rent checks must be on file, and any prescribed information for the deposit scheme must be provided on or before the move-in date. A let only service that leaves this paperwork to the landlord is incomplete.

Deposit registration

Deposits must be registered with one of the three government-approved schemes, TDS, MyDeposits, or DPS, within 30 days of receipt, and the prescribed information must be served on the tenant within the same window. Missing this deadline strips the landlord of the ability to serve a Section 21 (now abolished) or Section 8 on certain grounds, and exposes the landlord to a penalty of one to three times the deposit amount.

Move-in and check-in inventory

On the move-in day, the property should be professionally cleaned, an independent inventory should be prepared, meter readings should be taken, and the keys should be handed over in person. This is the moment most commonly cut from cheap let only services, and it is the moment that determines whether a deposit dispute 18 months later is winnable.

What's not typically included (and how AIHPG differs)

On the high street, a let only service usually stops at move-in and sends an itemised bill for everything else: cleaning, inventory, EICR, gas safety, EPC, and sometimes the referencing itself. A £600 headline fee easily becomes a £1,500 final invoice once these items are added. Typical London add-on pricing sits roughly at: end-of-tenancy clean £200–£350, inventory £120–£200, EICR £120–£200, gas safety certificate £70–£110, EPC £60–£100. Add those to a headline let only fee and the true cost of the service becomes clear.

AIHPG's let only with services model is different: professional cleaning and inventory, EICR, gas safety, and EPC are included as standard, and the fee quoted at the start is the fee paid at move-in. There are no add-ons and no surprises, which makes the total cost comparable like-for-like rather than as a series of moving goalposts. It also means the tenant moves into a property that is fully certificated and fully documented, with all the records already on file, which matters when the national property portal goes live under the Renters' Rights Act 2025.

Let only vs full management: which does a London landlord need?

A let only service ends the day the tenant moves in. A full management service continues through the life of the tenancy. The right choice depends on three practical questions: how far the landlord lives from the property, how much time the landlord has to respond to tenant contact, and how confident the landlord is handling mid-tenancy compliance themselves.

• Landlords living within London, with one or two properties and time to answer a 10pm call about a boiler, can often run a tenancy themselves after a strong let only start.
• Landlords with day jobs, multiple properties, or properties outside their home borough usually save money overall with full management, because a single missed certificate renewal or a single undocumented repair can cost more than a year of management fees.
• Overseas landlords almost always need full management, non-resident landlord tax obligations and HMRC notification requirements make a UK-based point of contact essentially non-negotiable.

When a let only service for London landlords makes most sense

Let only is a strong choice when the property is in good repair, the landlord has time and appetite for day-to-day involvement, the tenant profile is expected to be long-term and low-friction (for example, a corporate tenant with a relocation package), and the landlord has a trusted network of contractors already in place. It is a weaker choice for tired properties that will need significant landlord-side intervention in the first six months, and for HMOs where mid-tenancy compliance is more complex. For those properties, service bundles that combine let only with targeted management elements often provide the best balance of cost and control: a bundle might add rent collection and routine inspections to a let only base, without committing to full management fees.

Why London landlords choose AIHPG for let only

Our let only service includes everything a complete tenancy setup requires, marketing, accompanied viewings, referencing, tenancy paperwork, deposit registration, professional cleaning, independent inventory, and the full suite of safety certificates, for a single, fixed fee agreed at the start. If a tenant leaves during the guaranteed rental period, we replace them free of charge. Because every service is delivered by an in-house team rather than a third-party contractor, the handover at move-in is cleaner and the documentation trail is complete from day one. For landlords who want the letting done properly once, then want to step back, let only with AIHPG is the straightest route from an empty property to a signed tenancy.