Online Letting Agents

rent_and_buy · 19 March 2009 at 3:57AM

georgeLL wrote: »

Yeah, the urbansales deal looks pretty good. Has anyone else used them?

ive had a look at these and i can not find any of their properties on right move, discount lettings and webresidential are on right move urbansales are not, so be careful and check that they are on right move before you instruct them.

mitchellst3ve · 23 March 2009 at 5:16PM

Thanks for the info rent_and_buy. I've seen Discount Letting in a few places and they seem to be the most talked about and trust worthy. Is it worth paying out to get the discount code that they mention on their site?

mitchellst3ve · 23 March 2009 at 5:18PM

Here I mean: http://www.discountletting.co.uk/let-property.php

rent_and_buy · 23 March 2009 at 5:21PM

Tenant Find Service discount code.

As of the 01/10/08 landlords wishing to take advantage of the 17% discount offered by Discount Letting for Landlord/Trade Association members, are required to visit their Landlord/Trade associations’ website and retrieve the discount code offered from within the associations secure members area.
At present all members of the following organisations have access to the 17% discount.

National Landlords Association (NLA) www.landlords.org.uk (Offered via LettingZone)
National Federation of Residential Landlords (NFRL) www.nfrl.co.uk
Southern Private Landlords Association (SPLA now know as the NFRL) www.nfrl.co.uk
Landlord Law members www.landlordlaw.co.uk
The Telegraph Property Club http://propertyclub.telegraph.co.uk

the propertyclub.telegraph is free to join, ill be using discount lettings when i am ready
its only 10 pound have a look how much it costs to join these sites.

mitchellst3ve · 23 March 2009 at 5:26PM

Thanks for telling me about the propertyclub, rent_and_buy. I've heard good things about it but have never got around to signing up. Always good to keep up to date with all things property!

follyfoot · 23 March 2009 at 6:53PM

I am in the process of letting my flat and i notice that some of the high street EA are charging 10% for a 6 month intro only and will not expect to charge for the life of the tenancy but the bigger EA want the same fee for the life of the tenancy. It seems quite criminal to me.

rent_and_buy · 23 March 2009 at 7:13PM

follyfoot wrote: »

I am in the process of letting my flat and i notice that some of the high street EA are charging 10% for a 6 month intro only and will not expect to charge for the life of the tenancy but the bigger EA want the same fee for the life of the tenancy. It seems quite criminal to me.

Do the right research and i think it looks quite easy to do, i think the adavantage of doing it yourself the tenants do not have to pay stupid fees, which are relatively easy to do if you do the right research.

Ive had 4 letting agents come round and i have looked at a load of forums and seaked advice from friends who already let houses out.

comprehensive references
rent gaurantee
landlords insurance
homcare service, gas certificates smoke alarms, and electrical homecare
tenancy agreement
inventory
household bill changeover, check after one month names have changed
Government rent deposit scheme( inform tennants of where funds are and give them a reciept)

Ive seen the fees they were going to charge me as a landlord, but i think was more wrong was the charges they make on the tenants, which i think rips them off more than the landlords.

Ill just ask for a fee for a comprhensive credit check which will be about 22.50 a tenant, if they fail it they lose the 22.50 if they pass it, i get the rent gaurantee and they get to rent my house.

I think renting your house out yourself is covering all thing that can go wrong, and if they do go wrong you are not hit in the pocket, thats why im going fot the rent gaurantee.

follyfoot · 23 March 2009 at 7:35PM

rent_and_buy wrote: »

Do the right research and i think it looks quite easy to do, i think the adavantage of doing it yourself the tenants do not have to pay stupid fees, which are relatively easy to do if you do the right research.

Ive had 4 letting agents come round and i have looked at a load of forums and seaked advice from friends who already let houses out.
comprehensive references

rent gaurantee

landlords insurance

homcare service, gas certificates smoke alarms, and electrical homecare

tenancy agreement

inventory

household bill changeover, check after one month names have changed

Government rent deposit scheme( inform tennants of where funds are and give them a reciept)

Ive seen the fees they were going to charge me as a landlord, but i think was more wrong was the charges they make on the tenants, which i think rips them off more than the landlords.

Ill just ask for a fee for a comprhensive credit check which will be about 22.50 a tenant, if they fail it they lose the 22.50 if they pass it, i get the rent gaurantee and they get to rent my house.

I think renting your house out yourself is covering all thing that can go wrong, and if they do go wrong you are not hit in the pocket, thats why im going fot the rent gaurantee.

i dont understand how your rent is guaranteed? your list of 1-8 do you do all this yourself?

tbs624 · 23 March 2009 at 8:27PM

georgeLL wrote: »

Yeah, the urbansales deal looks pretty good. Has anyone else used them?

Their tenancy agreement is appalling IMO - contains no information on tenancy deposit schemes and includes some prime examples of clauses that would fall foul of the OFT's Unfair Contract Terms.

Pretty early on it has :

"The Landlord agrees, subject to the Tenant paying the rent and observing and performing the obligations set out on this Agreement, not to interrupt or interfere with the Tenant’s right to quiet possession and enjoyment of the Property."

Urban seem unaware that the LL's covenant to afford "quiet enjoyment" is not conditional in that manner. Are they suggesting that should a T fail to make a rent payment then their agreement allows the LL to behave in a manner tha tmay leave him/her open to an action for T harassment?
Let's move on to:

"The Tenant is responsible for the cleaning of the insides of all windows and for immediately replacing any broken glass, howsoever caused."

Nope, the T can only be made responsible for glass damaged by them or their visitors. Any other damage is an insurable risk for the LL.

"The Tenant shall allow the Landlord or his agent access to the premises at reasonable hours during the final 28 days of the tenancy, to show the premises to prospective Tenants or at any time to show the premises to a prospective purchaser or anyone acting on his behalf."

Good luck with that one.

"When a notice to quit is to be served, both the Landlord and the Tenant must serve notice no less than two months prior to the date that the party serving the notice wishes the Agreement to come to an end.

31.2 The Tenant can not serve notice (unless the Landlord has broken the Agreement) no sooner than a six month term of this Agreement has passed.
31.3 The Landlord can not serve notice (unless the Tenant has broken the Agreement) no sooner than a six month term of this Agreement has passed."

If it's a FT AST then the T does not have to give any notice to leave at expiry: if the tenancy then becomes a Stat Periodic the T only has to give*one* month's notice and anything said in a prior TA is now to do with it.. If the FT is for longer than 6 months then does Urban want a break clause or what?

There are more.

Hmm....

rent_and_buy · 23 March 2009 at 10:27PM

follyfoot wrote: »

i dont understand how your rent is guaranteed? your list of 1-8 do you do all this yourself?

Yes 1 to 8 i will organise and do myself, most of its already aranged, ive got the rent gaurantee arranged for 99 pound for the year, this means that if the people i rent to stop paying endsleigh, will pay my rent if the tenants dont(hopefully they will though)

Included in the rent gaurantee they will do all the legals to remove the tenants, which is in their best interest has they are paying the rent if the tenant dosnt, and if the house is unliveable when the tenants leave they will pay up to three months rent until you can do thre repairs.

Most evictions take no longer than 3 months if the correct procedure is done.

The only thing ensleigh require is that the people you rent to, pass a comprehensive reference, which i will be doing through rentchecks.com

homecare, gas certificates through bristish gas and landlords buildings insuance through endlseigh.

i will collect the deposit and put it in the https://www.depositprotection.com/Public/FAQs.aspx?bhjs=1&fla=1&section=general

and give the tennant a copy and the login information within 14 days.

I know my house better than anyone and any letting agent, so when i do the inventory i will take photos and get the tenant to sign and agree the condition of everything left, and i will also get them to sign the readings for gas and electricity metres

On a personal point of view looking at urban, i would not bother with them, just do your homework, ive been looking into this for thast ouple of months and im not even in a postion to do it yet has we have not found a house to buy.

I feel letting agents are okay, but they charge a lot for what they do, people will say try it yourself then, i will, ive heard of horror stories with people who use letting agent and people who dont, if you can get rent gaurantees and comprehensive references done, this eradicates the risk of you losing out on rent.

Im not saying you wont get a tenant that wont pay the rent, but if you do you will still get your rent, form a personal point of view if i had rent gaurantee and the tenant didnt pay and the insurance company did, i would have no issue with the tennant, it will be all down to the rent gaurantee people to remove them and i would leave it in theor hands.

Bottom line if you have a letting agent or not the book stops with the landlord when theres a problem.

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