Thursday, May 21, 2009
Letting agents fees "out of control" says Citizens Advice
Guardian: Letting agents are ripping off tenants
"Letting agents are routinely ripping off tenants with unjustified and excessive charges, while providing a poor or nonexistent service, according to a report by Citizens Advice today. It found a range of spurious charges, with some agents demanding £275 from tenants just to check references, or more than £200 to renew a contract. Citizens Advice Bureaux are dealing with 6,000 complaints about letting agents a year, and said that the behaviour of agents is now "out of control"..." My own experience is that this is not accross the board, with some fair letting agents. Time to expose the bad apples.
Posted by mountain goat @ 08:54 AM (959 views) Add Comment
10 Comments
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1. Gimble said...
Get this. My flat is managed by my landlord, so after we moved in we have no contact with the original agents. However, it's stated in our contract that we have to pay them £375 just to renew the lease! We told them to take the clause out because it was unreasonable but they refused, and they already had a £700 non-returnable holding deposit which we would have lost if we had not signed to move in. They're a large-ish agent in London with 4 branches and fancy offices and I thought this fee was standard practice but have since found it isn't. My fault for being naive I suppose, but wtf?
2. Paulos said...
I'd agree with this wholeheartedly!
My current agent charged £50 for credit checking, but after paying them the sum was then also deducted from my account by my bank. Then the letting agents suddenly change track and it was really to cover other thinks like "drawing up the contract". Oh yes, that photocopied contract? Must have been a lot of hard work to do...
And then they lost my contract which was for 12 months and claimed I'd only signed for 6 months so would have to pay a renewal fee. I refused until they produced the contract... they eventually found the original but you could actually see where they had pulled the staples out and replaced the page which gave the duration of the tenancy. They then backed down and said that as a "goodwill" gesture they wouldn't charge me the renewal fee.
Rubbish.
3. paul said...
Tenancy renewal fees never have to be paid - just carry on paying your rent and usually they won't bother you because they know that such fees are neither lawful or enforceable.
If they do try it on, you can simply bill the letting agent for 'contract renewal adminstration fees' of other spurious sounding nonsense.
I've done it plenty of times without problems.
4. d'oh said...
£250 for a credit check at my current place...and they didn't do the check. Scum. (Mind you the LL is even more p*ssed off with them than we are. She has to go round to the LA every month to demand that he pay her the rent...a service for which she pays £150pcm!)
5. 51ck-6-51x said...
d'Oh - consider cutting them out upon your next renewal - check any contractual obligations though.
6. japanese uncle said...
I am currently providing accommodation (a house bought at local ASDA @3 pounds) to a couple of little birds (yellow hammers) in my balcony, and I am charging neither rent nor fee at all. Anyway I do not want worms or something like they are so busy catching all day that they are likely to pay as rent or fee, if asked. They are entitled to the use of the house for the rest of their lives, if they like, but they will have no mortgages or debt. Living under a roof is a natural right for all creatures including mankind.
7. mountain goat said...
JU congratulations on getting yellow hammers to nest on your balcony. I thought they were shy birds?
8. japanese uncle said...
mg
Actually I am not 100% sure if they are really yellow hammers. But they look to me like ones. They used their beak to enlarge the hall/entrance of the house initially, quite like woodpeckers, making some hammering sounds. They certainly would not enter the house, while I am watching.
9. 1stavenue. Co. Uk said...
It is true. We hear about it all the time and it usually the same agents I hear about. We charge £120 per person and do a bang up job, but then customer service and recommendations are important to us. www.twitter.com/1stavenuelondon
10. Iguana said...
JU.
Is the base of the tail feather a rusty brown/red?