For most letting agents, direct debit. You collect the rent on the due date instead of waiting to see whether a standing order turns up, you set the amount, so a rent increase doesn't rely on the tenant editing their payment, and each collection is tied to the tenancy, so there's nothing to match by hand. Standing orders carry no provider fee, but when a tenant cancels one you find out from a gap in the bank feed on rent day.
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The short version
- A standing order is the tenant's instruction to their own bank, so they can change or cancel it at any time and nobody tells you.
- With direct debit the tenant signs one mandate, you collect on the due date after giving notice of the amount, and a failed collection can be retried automatically.
- When the rent goes up after a section 13 notice, you update the amount in your rent schedule and the tenant doesn't need to change anything.
- Direct debit carries a fee you can't pass to tenants under the Tenant Fees Act, which on Adfin's published pricing is £4.20 on a £950 monthly rent.
- Make direct debit the default for new tenancies, move existing tenants at their next rent increase, and give anyone staying on standing order their own bank details.
What rent week looks like on standing orders
Take an agent with 40 tenancies, most of them due on the 1st. By the morning of the 3rd, 33 payments have landed. Two are from parents whose names you don't recognise, one has just "FLAT 2" as the reference, one is £45 short, and seven haven't arrived at all.
Some of those seven will turn up later that day. One tenant moved banks and forgot to set the standing order up again. Another cancelled it during a dispute about a boiler and didn't mention it. From the bank feed alone, you can't tell which is which, so someone spends the afternoon on the phone and WhatsApp while three landlords email to ask where their money is.
A standing order is the tenant's instruction to their own bank, and the rent only arrives if that instruction is still running, at the right amount, to the right account.
Who controls the payment
With a standing order, the tenant does. They set it up, they can change the amount or the date, and they can cancel it from their banking app at any time. Nobody tells you when they do.
With direct debit, the tenant signs a mandate once and you collect each payment on the due date, after giving them notice of the amount. They can still cancel whenever they like through their bank, and the Direct Debit Guarantee entitles them to a full and immediate refund if a payment is taken in error, which is worth pointing out to tenants who are nervous about "letting the agent take money". If a collection fails, you and the tenant are both told, and it can be retried automatically rather than waiting for someone to notice.
Rent collected this way also tends to arrive closer to the due date. Adfin's rent data for 2025 and 2026, drawn from an early, small group of property businesses, points the same way. 85% of direct debit rent was in within five days of its due date, compared with 62% of rent paid by standing order or transfer outside the platform. Only 4.6% of direct debit rent ran more than 14 days late; for standing orders and transfers the figure was 22.8%. Read those figures as directional rather than a benchmark, because the standing order numbers depend on when each payment was recorded.
What happens when the rent goes up
Rent can rise once a year, with two months' notice on a section 13 notice. On a standing order, the new figure only reaches you if the tenant logs in and changes their payment. Plenty don't. If £950 goes up to £995 and the tenant forgets, you're £45 short every month, and three months later the account is £135 in arrears and you're chasing a tenant who thinks they've paid.
With direct debit, the mandate carries on unchanged. You update the amount in your rent schedule, the tenant gets notice of the new figure before the next collection, and the higher rent is taken on the due date. The tenant doesn't need to do anything.
What direct debit costs and how to decide
A standing order carries no provider fee for either side. Direct debit costs the agent, and you can't pass the charge on, because a fee for paying rent isn't one of the payments a tenant can be asked for under the Tenant Fees Act. On Adfin's published pricing, a £950 monthly rent by direct debit costs £4.20 (1% is £9.50, capped at £4, plus 20p), so 40 tenancies at that rent come to £168 a month. Weekly room rent of £120 costs £1.40 a payment. Failed direct debits aren't charged, and there's no monthly fee.
To decide for your own rent roll:
- Count last quarter's problem payments: late, short, unmatched or missing, and roughly how long each took to sort out.
- Make direct debit the default for every new tenancy, with the mandate signed alongside the tenancy agreement and the first collection on the first due date.
- Move existing tenants at a natural moment, such as their next rent increase, when they'd otherwise have to edit a standing order anyway.
- For tenants who want to stay on standing orders, give each one their own bank details so their payments still match.
Adfin handles both. It collects rent by direct debit without you needing a direct debit facility from your own bank, and gives each standing order tenant a unique account number and sort code in your business's name, so their payment matches itself in Xero or QuickBooks whatever reference they type. For rent that still doesn't arrive, its AI agents can send reminders by WhatsApp, SMS or email on terms you sign off, and a tenant going through a hard time can be taken out of chasing on their own.
Common questions
Can a tenant cancel a direct debit for rent? Yes, at any time, through their bank. Cancelling the payment doesn't end the tenancy or the rent that's owed.
Do I get told when a tenant cancels a standing order? Not automatically. The tenant's bank stops paying, and you usually find out when the rent doesn't arrive.
Can I charge the tenant for paying by direct debit? No. Processing fees aren't among the payments the Tenant Fees Act permits, so the agent or landlord bears the cost.
Do tenants have to re-sign a direct debit when the rent changes? No. One mandate covers varying amounts, as long as the tenant gets notice of the new amount and date before the collection.
Is direct debit safe for tenants? Tenants are covered by the Direct Debit Guarantee, which gives them a full and immediate refund from their bank if a payment is taken in error.
Should I make direct debit compulsory? Many agents make it the default and keep another option for tenants who ask, such as a standing order to unique bank details or a payment link.
Sources
- MoneyHelper - Direct Debits and standing orders (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/banking/direct-debits-and-standing-orders
- The Direct Debit Guarantee - directdebit.co.uk (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/pages/directdebitguarantee.aspx
- GOV.UK - Assured periodic tenancies: a guide for landlords: Rent increases (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.gov.uk/assured-tenancy-agreements-a-guide-for-landlords/rent-increases
- GOV.UK - Tenant Fees Act 2019: statutory guidance for enforcement authorities (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tenant-fees-act-amended-by-the-renters-rights-act-2025/tenant-fees-act-2019-statutory-guidance-for-enforcement-authorities
- Adfin - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/pricing
- Adfin - Property management (accurate as of October 2026) https://adfin.com/for/property-management
