Commentary on provisions of Act Section 2: Prohibitions applying to letting agents
This section provides that a letting agent of housing in England must not require a tenant or other relevant person to make a payment or a loan in connection with a tenancy.
	This section also provides that such a letting agent must not require a tenant or other relevant person to secure and pay for services from themselves or any third party, for example a reference provider, an inventory service or an insurer, in connection with a tenancy.
	This section sets out that an agent is considered to have required a relevant person to make a payment, a loan or enter into a contract with themselves or a third party in connection with a tenancy if they have:
required the person to do any of those things in consideration of the grant, renewal, continuance, variation, assignment, novation or termination of a tenancy;
required the person to do any of those things pursuant to an agreement related to the tenancy which requires, or purports to require, the person to do any of those things in the event of an act or default by a relevant person or if the tenancy is varied, assigned, novated or terminated;
required the person to do any of those things as a result of an act or default by a relevant person relating to a tenancy unless pursuant to, or for the breach of an agreement; or
charged the person in consideration of providing a reference in relation to occupation of housing.
	This section provides that an agent may require a relevant person to make a payment, enter into a contract or grant a loan if it is an alternative to another requirement that is not unreasonable or prohibited. It must not simply be a different means of requiring a relevant person to do any of the prohibited things.
	This section does not apply to a requirement imposed on a tenant or other relevant person by any agent who provides a service to a tenant, and as part of that service finds housing which that tenant agrees to rent, provided that the agent does not act for the landlord with whom the tenancy is agreed (for that or any other housing).