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Tenant Fees - Infuriating

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Comments

  • Riggyman
    Riggyman Posts: 185 Forumite
    Rent somewhere else, or re-negotiate the fees. That clearly is the market rate or no-one would be interested.
  • csgohan4
    csgohan4 Posts: 10,587 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post Name Dropper Photogenic
    ska_lover wrote: »
    Guest, again, you have offered nothing of value.

    Never one to offer advice or assistance - you giving ''your opinion'' is more often than not just an excuse for you to be rude.

    Why don't you just stop.



    Look who's talking
    "It is prudent when shopping for something important, not to limit yourself to Pound land/Estate Agents"

    G_M/ Bowlhead99 RIP
  • Guest101
    Guest101 Posts: 15,764 Forumite
    ska_lover wrote: »
    Guest, again, you have offered nothing of value.

    Never one to offer advice or assistance - you giving ''your opinion'' is more often than not just an excuse for you to be rude.

    Why don't you just stop.

    "I don't like what the mean man said"

    I offer advice all the time. In this case there was no tangible advice to offer.
  • theartfullodger
    theartfullodger Posts: 14,535 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    edited 9 October 2016 at 8:59AM
    ska_lover wrote: »
    Guest, again, you have offered nothing of value.

    Never one to offer advice or assistance - you giving ''your opinion'' is more often than not just an excuse for you to be rude.

    Why don't you just stop.
    Really? Guest's stats
    Thanked 10,671 Times in 5,066 Posts...
    ""Never one to offer advice or assistance"".. appears, err, a terminological inexactitude..... (See Winston..)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminological_inexactitude
  • Pixie5740
    Pixie5740 Posts: 14,515 Forumite
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    I paid near to 1.5k in fees (including processing of a guarantor) in the South West plus 1 and 1/2 months rent in advance to get into my last flat only to be given a section 21 just 6 months later. This was after the landlord decided to sell as he couldn't maintain the property to habitable standards (damp and mould everywhere) so a revenge eviction pretty much. & so I had to pay just over 1k again to find another place. Now a year later I am having to pay £125 for just two documents to be printed out to renew the contract. All lining the Letting Agents pockets. & sadly, in this area, this amount is not unusual. So yeah, it could be worse, basically.

    You don't have to renew you tenancy each time the fixed term ends. You could do nothing and just allow the tenancy to become periodic. The letting agent can't do anything to prevent this because it's either statutory or contractual law.

    Yes the letting agent might threaten you with a Section 21 but the letting agent can't take you to court. Since your contract is with the landlord only the landlord could take you to court or appoint a solicitor to represent him/her in court. From a business point of view does it make any sense to evict a decent, paying tenant? Not if you're the landlord. From the letting agents point of view? Yes it's good to have a constant churn of tenants. All those referencing fees from tenants and tenant finder fees from the landlord....kerching!
  • Pixie5740
    Pixie5740 Posts: 14,515 Forumite
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    Riggyman wrote: »
    Rent somewhere else, or re-negotiate the fees. That clearly is the market rate or no-one would be interested.

    It's not as straightforward as that. You'll probably find that in each area referencing fees are more or less the same because letting agency fees in England are completely unregulated. Furthermore, if you live in an area where demand for rental properties is high the tenant has little negotiating power. You don't want to pay the fees, that's fine there are a dozen other tenants out there who will.

    I wonder how many landlords who use letting agents are aware of just how much tenants are being charged for referencing.
  • preciousillusions
    preciousillusions Posts: 543 Forumite
    edited 9 October 2016 at 7:04PM
    Pixie5740 wrote: »
    You don't have to renew you tenancy each time the fixed term ends. You could do nothing and just allow the tenancy to become periodic. The letting agent can't do anything to prevent this because it's either statutory or contractual law.

    Yes the letting agent might threaten you with a Section 21 but the letting agent can't take you to court. Since your contract is with the landlord only the landlord could take you to court or appoint a solicitor to represent him/her in court. From a business point of view does it make any sense to evict a decent, paying tenant? Not if you're the landlord. From the letting agents point of view? Yes it's good to have a constant churn of tenants. All those referencing fees from tenants and tenant finder fees from the landlord....kerching!

    But I don't have a new contract and my last one ends this month? Plus need that contract on paper to claim my HB for the next year. I really can't risk upsetting my current landlord either due to last bad experience. Rent is also increasing so surely a new contract is needed for that? The letter basically stated that my contract is ending but that they are offering me another 12 months at XXXPCM and to accept I would need to call and pay £125 processing fees asap.
  • Pixie5740
    Pixie5740 Posts: 14,515 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post Photogenic First Anniversary
    But I don't have a new contract and my last one ends this month? Plus need that contract on paper to claim my HB for the next year. I really can't risk upsetting my current landlord either due to last bad experience. Rent is also increasing so surely a new contract is needed for that? The letter basically stated that my contract is ending but that they are offering me another 12 months at XXXPCM and to accept I would need to call and pay £125 processing fees asap.

    The fixed term is ending not your tenancy. If you do nothing then the day after your fixed term ends you will have a periodic tenancy. Periodic tenancies are legally binding and if the letting agent had really said that your contract is ending they are talking piffle.

    You don't need to sign a new TA to increase the rent either. You can just accept that the rent will be £X pcm from the start of your periodic tenancy and start paying it.

    It's possible to bypass the letting agent and deal directly with the landlord regarding this or any other matter. It's quite possible the letting agent is also charging the landlord a renewal fee too.

    Those processing your HB should be well aware of periodic tenancies, if not they're in the wrong job.

    Read these links (I can't format them nicely in my phone).

    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=67759913&postcount=4

    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=67759920&postcount=5
  • Pixie5740 wrote: »
    The fixed term is ending not your tenancy. If you do nothing then the day after your fixed term ends you will have a periodic tenancy. Periodic tenancies are legally binding and if the letting agent had really said that your contract is ending they are talking piffle.

    You don't need to sign a new TA to increase the rent either. You can just accept that the rent will be £X pcm from the start of your periodic tenancy and start paying it.

    It's possible to bypass the letting agent and deal directly with the landlord regarding this or any other matter. It's quite possible the letting agent is also charging the landlord a renewal fee too.

    Those processing your HB should be well aware of periodic tenancies, if not they're in the wrong job.

    Read these links (I can't format them nicely in my phone).

    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=67759913&postcount=4

    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=67759920&postcount=5

    I believe you and thank you for the explanation, but I still don't think it would work :(. I saw my landlord (one of, they are a couple) last week and explained I wouldn't be able to pay the renewal fee till literally a day before my contract ends and she said that would be fine, nothing about me not having to go through that process. So I don't think they would be happy otherwise unfortunately.

    All ll I know is my HB is being paid until the end of the tenancy period on my last contract and I'd need to provide them with the new one signed be me and the landlord to process the new claim as is true of all councils I think? They won't pay unless they see such a document.

    The LL is actually going to cut out the maintenance part of what they are paying for property management services as it just creates more issues but explained to me they'd still be paying for the admin/collection of rent etc portion.
  • Guest101
    Guest101 Posts: 15,764 Forumite
    I believe you and thank you for the explanation, but I still don't think it would work :(. I saw my landlord (one of, they are a couple) last week and explained I wouldn't be able to pay the renewal fee till literally a day before my contract ends and she said that would be fine, nothing about me not having to go through that process. So I don't think they would be happy otherwise unfortunately.

    All ll I know is my HB is being paid until the end of the tenancy period on my last contract and I'd need to provide them with the new one signed be me and the landlord to process the new claim as is true of all councils I think? They won't pay unless they see such a document.

    The LL is actually going to cut out the maintenance part of what they are paying for property management services as it just creates more issues but explained to me they'd still be paying for the admin/collection of rent etc portion.
    That is not true of all councils at all, in fact the council reacting very unethically forcing you to spend money on something you don't need
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