New renter - Help with fees!

Coroona

Hi all, im looking for some advice from the knowledgeable people here! Myself and my girlfriend are going to be renting a flat for the first time, we found a place ideal for us that is being rented via a letting agency for £850 PCM. The agency has just sent me an e-mail outlining their fees... Im completely shocked by them! I have no idea if this is normal or not, the amounts themselves seem excessive.

Could anyone let me know if these sort of amounts are reasonable? The LA has said they are going to be taking a holding fee of £300 which is not refundable but will be taken off of the deposit and rent, they have my debit card details but have not taken the money yet. I gave them the card details on Tuesday afternoon.

Any help that can be given to someone very new at this game will be very much appreciated. Thanks everyone!

£850.00 One Month's Rent In Advance
£1176.90 Six weeks Rent Security Deposit
£ 92.00 Contract & Administration Fee (inc VAT)
£ 161.00 Individual Reference Rent Guarantee Fee/s (inc VAT) x 2 persons
£ 143.75 Independent Inventory Clerk Attendance at Check-in & Check-Out (**see below)

£2423.65TOTAL (based on 2 tenants)
Less

£ 300.00 Initial Payment already taken
£2123.65 BALANCE DUE

**Please be aware that your Landlord is obliged to protect your security deposit and any required deductions, at the end of the tenancy, must be agreed by all parties in accordance with the findings of the Independent Inventory Clerk which you and your Landlord share the cost of at the outset of the tenancy.

sooz

Their fees seem about average.

Nearly £300 for the inventory (both in & out) is a little steep. Don't know where you are based, but even in London it's a little less!

The most of the 'fee' is your rent in advance & deposit, which is totally normal. You always pay your rent in advance, & 6 weeks deposit is the norm now.

debtfreein4years

seems right to me, cost us about £2K to move in here, although we didnt have to pay for any inventory.

its an expensive business starting to rent somewhere new.

rl290

One month's rent and six week's deposit are fairly standard. The final two are a little steep, but understandable. Regarding the £92 admin fee, this is again an industry standard, but I usually refuse to pay it - I just say that the landlord has already paid for the administration (usually at an exorbitant rate), and they can either drop the charge or I'll drop the property. In today's rental market this should be even easier. Then again, depends how much you like the property.

R

PasturesNew

One Month's Rent In Advance - normal
Six weeks Rent Security Deposit - normal

Contract & Administration Fee (inc VAT) - normal
Individual Reference Rent Guarantee Fee/s (inc VAT) x 2 persons - normal
Independent Inventory Clerk Attendance at Check-in & Check-Out - normal

Now, having said that's all normal, the deposit is linked to the rental amount, so is quite hefty in itself. But all perfectly normal.

The rest are the charges the Letting Agent make to you for the service they are providing you with.

The contract charge is to actually pull up their standard contract for that property/landlord and fill in the dates/amounts and your name/address and print out two copies. You'll be paying for that and the time it takes to do that and the time it takes for their staff to sit beside you while you read it all. So it's a totally nuts price, but that's the price at that agent.

Two reference checks. As there are two of you on the agreement, they have to check you both. However, reference checks don't cost that much. You're paying for two reference checks, their staff time to fill in your details on some online form and receive back the answers, print those out, take a copy, read through it for anything awful in your history and if appropriate speak to their manager/the landlord about it. Yes, it's a lot, too much, but that's the price at your agent - and many agents. For just me I paid £176.

The inventory check in and out is where somebody from their office takes an hour out of their day (or up to 2 hours depending on how it goes and distance) to meet you at the property and go through the inventory with you, then get back to the office and take copies and file that away in the filing cabinet.

When you move out, there's a 2nd visit where they compare that original inventory to the state of the property now and make a comparison, so they can judge if there are any repairs/charges to be taken out of your deposit.

It's money for old rope when you look at it like that. But that's the business they're in. It's unfortunate that all their charges etc are rarely seen by tenants until it's too late and you've picked a flat. When you need somewhere to live you start from the "where's available/can I view it" end as few people would even think to get/understand the agent price list from the outset.

Vampgirl

Yep unfortunately they are pretty normal fees and I share your pain - it really is money for old rope!
We are in the process of moving and our fees up front are also 1 month's rent, 6 weeks as deposit, application fees of £230 and checkin fee of £92 making a grand total of £2,697 - and this is through the most reasonable agency around here! When we were looking if we liked somewhere we always asked what the agency's fees were - they vary so much and some round here are double what we're paying :eek:

It can be difficult to find all that money in one go - I doubt many of us have it laying around *lol* We are borrowing the deposit from family and will pay them back when we get the deposit back from our current place and I suspect we will be using our overdraft for next month or so until our bonuses arrive! Not ideal, but we always knew that moving would be expensive and we decided that its worth the hassle.

Coroona

Thanks for the replies everyone! They were a shock when I first say them, as we are new to this I just wanted to make sure we weren't paying over the odds! It looks like im on a steep learning curve...

tbs624

Coroona wrote: »

.... The LA has said they are going to be taking a holding fee of £300 which is not refundable but will be taken off of the deposit and rent, they have my debit card details but have not taken the money yet. I gave them the card details on Tuesday afternoon...

I would not agree to pay a "holding fee" that is non-refundable. There are circumstances in which it is entirely appropriate that the LA should refund all or part of your holding fee.

I would like to see the practice of taking holding fees abolished. How many people do you know who would willingly give up all their personal information for credit checks etc if they were not intending to go ahead with a rental?

abaxas

Remember that you DONT want an inventory.

If the LL insists, insist he/she pays for it.

sooz

abaxas wrote: »

Remember that you DONT want an inventory.

If the LL insists, insist he/she pays for it.

good luck with that argument . The OP might well find that their non refundable holding deposit is not refunded & that they have no flat either.

The agency is using an independent inventory clerk, & BOTH the LL & tenant are paying for both checks, which means that the clerk is working for both of them. If only one paid, it wouldn't be an independent check.

I agree with RL290. Ask the agent to drop their admin fee. The LL will be paying them probably the first months' rent, & vat, plus tenancy agreement fees, plus probably a renewal fee. The LA is agent for the LL, not the tenant, & the LL is already paying them (a lot of money )

thebaldwindowfitter

those fees seem reasonable to me .is it not possible that you could rent the property direct from the landlord or is the estate agent the landlord .i rent property myself and have been left with a property empty for 3 weeks because a workmate of a friend said she and her boyfriend would have the property they backed out so i can understand the holding deposit.i rent my properties out myself so do and inventory check with the client charging them nothing letting agents are a rip off i would try avoiding them .the landlord now has to privide you with a hips pack which is current and upto date wether you rent the property or not