About this form
Form 4 is the tenant-side prescribed agreement: it appoints an estate agent to find residential property for a prospective tenant to rent. Non-exclusive, so the tenant may also work with other agencies or approach landlords directly.
When you need it
- A prospective tenant asks you to source rental property for them without granting exclusivity.
- You are showing rental properties to someone who is also viewing through other agencies.
- A relocating tenant wants representation for a defined search period.
How to complete it
- Record the tenant’s particulars from identification.
- State the search brief — property type, area, budget and intended lease term — with enough specificity for the commission trigger to be applied sensibly.
- State the commission, its basis and its trigger.
- Set the appointment period.
- Complete the salesperson’s CEA registration number.
- Sign before viewings begin, and give the tenant a copy.
Common mistakes
- Acting for the landlord and the tenant in the same tenancy. As with a sale, dual representation is not permitted.
- Failing to record the intended lease term, which usually drives the commission calculation.
- Beginning viewings before the appointment is documented.
- Reaching for Form 4 when the client is the landlord — that is Form 3.
Legal basis
Prescribed under the Estate Agents (Estate Agency Work) Regulations. CEA publishes the current forms and accompanying guidance. Read the issuer’s guidance.
Questions
- Can one salesperson act for both the landlord and the tenant?
- No. Acting for both parties to the same transaction is prohibited, in a lease as much as in a sale.
- Who normally pays the tenant’s agent?
- That is a matter for the agreement rather than a fixed rule, and market practice varies with the rent and the term. Whatever the arrangement, it should be stated in the form rather than left to be inferred.
- What is the exclusive version of this form?
- Form 8 — the exclusive estate agency agreement for the lease of residential property by a tenant.