Renting is where you pay rent to a landlord, and - subject to rules usually set out in a Tenancy Agreement or lease - he lets you live in his property for the agreed period.

Although it is possible to have a verbal Tenancy Agreement, most landlords will insist that the Agreement is in writing.  This ensures that you and the landlord are aware of your specific rights and obligations under the tenancy. 

Most residential tenancies are called Assured Shorthold Tenancies and will be for a fixed period of say 6 or 12 months.  This means that as long as you comply with the terms of the Agreement, the landlord cannot evict you before the tenancy runs out.  Even then, a landlord must give you proper notice that he wants the property back, and if you refuse to go, you can only be evicted with a Court Order. 

A typical Tenancy Agreement will set out how much rent you should pay, and when this is due.  Also, you are likely to be responsible for all outgoings (e.g. gas, water, electricity and Council Tax) payable in respect of the property. 

If a couple or a group of people rent a property, the landlord may want all of those people to sign up to the tenancy agreement, so they all become "joint and severally liable” for obeying the tenants' obligations under the lease - that could mean that any one of them will be liable for the full rent on the property even if the others don't pay their share.

Most landlords will ask you to pay a deposit at the start of the tenancy period, in case any rent is not paid or any damage takes place in the property. Unfortunately there are often arguments about whether a landlord should return or retain the deposit at the end of a tenancy, and unscrupulous landlords have been known to keep deposit monies when they are not entitled to do so.   However, since April 2007 there are new rules in force to protect Tenants from this kind of abuse, and it is important to ensure that these provisions are included in any Tenancy Agreement you may be asked to sign.