Guides
I found a tenant on OpenRent. Who manages the tenancy?
Finding a tenant is step one. Someone still has to run the tenancy for years afterwards: collect and chase the rent, coordinate repairs, track gas, EICR and EPC renewals, and handle the tax paperwork. You can do it yourself, hand it to a traditional letting agent for roughly 12–18% of the rent plus VAT, or use a flat-fee management platform like Cheerfulrent (£40/month, no commission) alongside the tenant you already found.
Written by the Cheerfulrent team · Reviewed by Gregory Smith, founder · Updated
What does tenant-finding actually cover, and what's left?
Tenant-finding gets you to move-in day: advertising, viewings, referencing and often deposit registration. Everything after that, the months and years of actually running the tenancy, is a separate job that nobody has taken on yet.
OpenRent and services like it give DIY landlords excellent tenant-finding and tenancy set-up tools: your property gets advertised, enquiries come in, you run viewings, the tenant is referenced, and the tenancy is set up. That work is real and it's done well, but it ends at roughly the point the tenant gets the keys.
Look at a typical tenancy's timeline. Finding the tenant takes a few weeks; the tenancy itself runs for years. On that timeline, set-up is a sliver at the start. The remaining 95% or so is management: rent arriving (or not) every month, a boiler failing in January, a gas safety certificate expiring every 12 months, an EICR due every 5 years, an EPC to keep valid, and records you'll need at tax time. None of that is anyone's job until you decide whose job it is, which is exactly the question this guide answers.
Can I self-manage the tenancy I set up?
Yes: plenty of landlords do, and if you set the tenancy up yourself you're clearly capable. The honest requirement is time and systems: chasing rent at UK hours, a repairs route tenants can actually use, and a compliance calendar that never slips.
Self-management works well when you can genuinely cover three things:
- Rent monitoring and chasing. Checking the payment landed each month, and being able to send the day-3 reminder and make the day-7 call at UK hours, which is harder if you travel or live abroad (see rent collection from abroad).
- A repairs route. Tenants need a way to report problems and you need tradespeople who will turn up, including for the emergency that won't wait for you to ring around for quotes.
- A compliance calendar. Gas, electrical and energy certificates all renew on different cycles, and the penalties for lapses fall on you. Our compliance certificates guide lists every renewal with the official sources.
If you have the time and you're organised, self-managing is the cheapest option and completely legitimate. The point where most landlords look for help isn't capability: it's the second property, the new day job, or the move abroad.
What does ongoing management cost with a traditional agent?
Full management from a traditional letting agent typically costs 12–18% of the rent plus VAT. On £1,800/month at 15% + VAT that's £324 a month, about £3,888 a year, every year the tenancy runs.
The maths on a £1,800/month rent: 15% is £270; add VAT at 20% and the monthly fee is £324, or £3,888 a year. Across the 12–18% range the annual cost runs from about £3,110 (12% + VAT) to about £4,666 (18% + VAT). Because the fee is a percentage, it rises with every rent increase. The agent's workload doesn't.
There's also a practical catch for landlords in your position: many traditional agents are reluctant to take on management-only instructions for a tenant they didn't find themselves, because the tenant-find commission is part of how their model earns. Some will; many quote reluctantly or add set-up fees. Our full comparison of the models is in Cheerfulrent vs traditional letting agents.
How does Cheerfulrent work with a tenant I found elsewhere?
You add the property, invite the tenant you found by email, and either e-sign a government-standard AST through the platform or upload the tenancy agreement you already have. Then Cheerfulrent runs the ongoing management for £40/month flat, no commission.
Cheerfulrent doesn't need to have found your tenant: it's the management layer, and it works with whoever you found and however you found them. The set-up:
- Add the property and invite your tenant by email: they get their own login for payments and repairs.
- Contract your way: e-sign a government-standard AST through the platform, or upload the agreement you already signed. We read it and use its terms.
- Rent by standing order with automatic detection: you're told the moment rent lands, and chasing starts automatically when it doesn't. Protection arrangements are in place before any rent is collected.
- Repairs via vetted local tradespeople, with the tenant reporting issues in the app rather than ringing you.
- Compliance tracked: gas, EICR and EPC renewal dates in one place, with reminders before anything lapses.
The price is £40/month per property, flat: no percentage, no commission, so it doesn't grow when the rent does. Against the £324/month worked example above, that's the comparison worth running.
What about the deposit and paperwork I already did?
Keep it. Your deposit stays protected exactly where it is, your existing documents upload as they are, and nothing you've already done gets redone unless you want it to.
Work you did during set-up doesn't need repeating. If the deposit is already protected in a government-approved scheme, it stays there: moving it would achieve nothing and risk breaking the protection you've already put in place. Referencing that's been done is done. Certificates, the signed agreement, the inventory, the written tenancy information you gave the tenant: upload them and they become the tenancy's record, with renewal tracking picking up from the dates on the documents.
In other words: the tenant-finding stage produced a tenant and a stack of valid paperwork. Management starts from what exists, not from scratch.
Bring the tenant you found: we'll run the tenancy
Cheerfulrent is the management layer for landlords who found their own tenant: invite them by email, sign or upload the contract, and get rent detection, vetted repairs and compliance tracking for £40/month flat, with no commission. Your first month is free, and we don't ask for a card.
Start free: no fee until your first rent is collected