The Rental Bidding Ban: What Landlords Can and Cannot Do

No. Section 56(3) of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 prohibits accepting an offer of rent above the stated rent, separately from the prohibition on inviting or encouraging one. An unsolicited offer is therefore still a breach if accepted, and the local housing authority does not need to show that the landlord or agent prompted it. The published starting point for this breach is £4,000, against a maximum of £7,000.

Not if it does no more than advertise that the property is available. Section 56(5) disapplies the duty to state the proposed rent for a sign displayed at the dwelling, or at the premises in which the dwelling is situated, which merely advertises that the dwelling is to let. A board that does display a figure falls outside that wording, and the safer assumption is that the figure shown would be treated as the stated rent.

Possibly, if the letting has genuinely changed. The government's guidance for local authorities gives an example of a property offered at one figure unfurnished and a higher figure furnished, on the basis that there is a difference between the two offerings. The Act does not define "proposed letting", so the boundary is untested, and any increase should be proportionate to what has actually changed rather than used to lift the rent generally.