Fully managed or let only: choosing a service

The decision between let only and a fully managed letting service is really a decision about who does the work after the tenant moves in. Both services find you a tenant. Both should reference properly, draft the tenancy, protect the deposit and hand over a compliant set of documents. After that, the two diverge completely. Let only stops. Management carries on for the life of the tenancy, and since 1 May 2026 the life of a tenancy has no fixed end date, which changes the shape of that commitment.

Plenty of agents write this comparison as though let only were a trap. It is not. For some landlords it is the sensible choice and the extra cost of management would buy them very little. The honest version of this article has to say who those landlords are.

What let only actually includes

A let only or tenant find service covers the process up to the point the tenant takes the keys. In practice that means:

• Marketing the property, including photographs, a listing and the portals
• Accompanied viewings
• Referencing and Right to Rent checks on every adult occupier
• Drawing up the tenancy agreement
• Registering the deposit and serving the prescribed information
• Collecting the first month's rent and the deposit
• Handing over the compliance documents, including the EPC, gas safety record and the government information sheet

That is a real piece of work and it is the part most landlords least want to do themselves. Advertising a property properly, sitting through six viewings on a Saturday and getting a set of references that actually mean something is time consuming. Our guide to tenant referencing explains what a reference should tell you and where the standard checks fall short.

After the keys change hands, a let only agent's involvement ends. Rent is paid to you. Repairs are reported to you. Notices are served by you.

What full management adds

A managed lettings service picks up everything from that point. The list is longer than most landlords expect:

• Rent collection, reconciliation and monthly statements
• Chasing arrears from day one, in writing, with a record that would stand up in court
• Taking repair reports, deciding what is urgent, instructing contractors and checking the work
• Periodic inspections and a written record of the property's condition
• Renewing gas safety checks, electrical certificates and anything else with an expiry date
• Handling rent increases correctly, once a year, on Form 4A, with at least two months' notice
• Responding to pet requests and recording the reason if the request is refused
• Serving notices and preparing the paperwork if possession becomes necessary
• Managing the deposit return, the deductions and any dispute at the end

Most of those items are individually small. The reason landlords move to management is rarely one big event. It is the accumulation of small events happening at inconvenient times.

What let only leaves sitting with you

This is the part worth being blunt about, because the gap is wider than it was two years ago.

Repairs and contractors. You take the call. You decide whether a dripping overflow is urgent. You find a plumber who will come out, you agree a price, you arrange access, and you check the work was done. If your tenant reports damp, you are the one who has to act, and act quickly. The government has said Awaab's Law will be extended to the private rented sector, but the timescale has not yet been confirmed, so the current position is that you deal with disrepair promptly on general legal duties rather than a fixed clock. Under let only, that duty is yours alone.

Inspections. Nobody inspects the property unless you do. That matters for condition, for spotting an unauthorised occupier, and for the evidence you will want if a deposit deduction is ever challenged.

Arrears. Chasing rent is uncomfortable and most landlords are slower at it than an agent would be. It also matters more than it used to. The rent arrears possession ground now requires three months' rent to be owed before the court will make a possession order, so the early weeks of arrears are the weeks in which the problem is still fixable. If you let a tenant drift for two months without a written record, you have lost both the money and the paper trail.

Notices. Section 21 is gone. Possession runs through the revised Section 8 grounds, many of which carry four months' notice, and sale or moving in cannot be used at all during the first twelve months of a tenancy. Getting the ground, the notice period and the form right is now the difference between a possession claim that works and one that is thrown out. If you are doing this yourself, read the government overview of the Renters' Rights Act for landlords before you serve anything, and take advice from a solicitor if the situation is contested.

The deposit at the end. You handle the check out, the comparison against the inventory, the proposed deductions and the negotiation. Deposits must be returned within 10 days of both parties agreeing the amount, and a court possession order is only available if the deposit was properly protected, returned, or the dispute resolved. The Tenancy Deposit Scheme publishes guidance on what adjudicators expect, and it is worth reading before you are in the middle of a dispute rather than after.

Keeping current. Rules have moved a long way. Rental bidding is banned. Rent in advance cannot be requested or accepted before the agreement is signed. Discrimination against applicants on benefits or with children is prohibited. Rent repayment orders now run to a maximum of two years' rent. The PRS Database begins its regional rollout late in 2026 with mandatory landlord registration in 2027, and the PRS Landlord Ombudsman follows in 2028. On top of that, EPC band C becomes the minimum for all private rented tenancies by 1 October 2030, with a £10,000 spending cap per property. Under let only, following all of that is your job.

Some of it is less onerous than landlords fear. Legionella is the usual example. The HSE requires you to assess and control the risk in the water system, but health and safety law does not require a "legionella test certificate", whatever a contractor may tell you, and most landlords can carry out a simple assessment themselves. The HSE guidance for landlords sets out what is actually needed.

When let only is the right answer

Let only works well, and there is no reason to talk a landlord out of it, when most of the following are true:

• You live locally, close enough to attend the property without rearranging your week
• You have time during the working day, because contractors, councils and tribunals all operate between nine and five
• You are comfortable with the compliance side, or willing to keep reading as it changes
• You have one property, or two, rather than a portfolio
• You want direct contact with your tenant and you are content to be the person they ring

A retired landlord with a single house in Bessacarr who has let it for fifteen years, knows a reliable joiner and reads the guidance updates is not being poorly served by let only. Paying for management would mostly be paying someone to do a job they already do competently.

When management earns its place

The case for a fully managed letting service is strongest where distance, volume or inexperience are in play.

Distance is the obvious one. If you live in London and own in Rotherham, you cannot meet a contractor at short notice and you cannot inspect. Volume is the second. Four properties generate roughly four times the small events, and the admin stops fitting around a full time job. Inexperience is the third, and it is the one landlords underrate: the first tenancy is where the expensive mistakes happen, usually on deposits, notices or a repair that was left too long.

Then there is the plain preference not to be on call. Boilers fail on Sunday evenings. If you do not want that phone call, that is a legitimate reason on its own, and it does not need dressing up as anything else.

Comparing the cost properly

Let only is charged as a one off. A fully managed letting service is charged on the rent as it comes in, so the comparison depends heavily on how long your tenancy runs. With tenancies now periodic from the start and no fixed end date, a tenant who stays four years changes that arithmetic considerably compared with one who leaves after twelve months.

We publish our charges in full on the fees page, and we work on one all in fee with no setup, renewal, inspection or admin charges. If you are comparing agents, the useful question is not the headline rate but what sits outside it, which is the point of our breakdown of what letting agents charge in Doncaster. An agent quoting a low rate and then billing separately for inspections, renewals and notices can easily cost more over a tenancy than one that does not.

Deciding

Write down the last twelve months honestly. How many repair calls did you take, how many did you enjoy handling, and how many were dealt with within a day. If the answer is that it was fine, let only is probably fine. If the answer involves a plumber you never want to use again and a gas certificate you renewed late, the calculation has already been made for you.

GMS handles both. We do let only where that is genuinely what suits the property and the landlord, and full management where it is not, and we will say which we think applies if you ask. Call 01302 244104 or come to the office at Unit 7, Atlas Business Park, Balby Carr Bank.