Letting Agency - Late rent fee's

Rawz

Hello,

Im just looking for some quick advice - i have searched for this topic and came up with http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=276967, i decided to post a new thread rather than ressurecting the old.

Basically my Letting agency stated in the contract :-

LATE RENT FEES If we do not receive rent by 5th working day after the day specified, we or the Landlord have the right to charge £10 per person per day for late rent fees.

Is this acceptable? Sorry if i'm being ignorant of the previous post - i just dont understand the 'acceptable' amount that should be charged, according to the OFT 356 document it seems like an unfair term in my tenancy agreement. I just want an answer before i go bumbling into my letting agency to try and call them off charging me ridiculous amounts for rent i didnt know i paid - my fault its late yes, but they dont notify me of these charges until it suits them. One of which was 19 days late for a second instalment of half rent over summer period which i mistakenly believed i had paid, i did when they phoned me and theatened me with late fee's. They seemed fine with it at the time but now theyre still trying to claim £190 for this one instance.

RainMaker_2

Rawz wrote: »

LATE RENT FEES If we do not receive rent by 5th working day after the day specified, we or the Landlord have the right to charge £10 per person per day for late rent fees.

Is this acceptable?

It's certainly acceptable to make a charge for late payment, normally simple interest @ X% over base on a daily basis, plus any admin costs involved in chasing payment.

So the question is whether £ 10/day is excessive given the amount of money you owed. You don't say what your actual amount is, but if you take £ 800PCM as an example, to then to be charged £ 10/day for late payment equates to an APR of.....456% !!!

Tell 'um to poke it !

socrates

Tell them to jog on!

tbs624

You obviously need to be more organised with your rent payments but this LAs charges are unacceptable. They can put what they like in their tenancy agreements but there is no guarantee that their hand-drafted clauses will be enforceable.

They need a formal letter from you - get support from a CAB/law centre worker if you're not sure how to word it, and you could also have a word with the local Trading Standards office, plus the Council's Private Sector Rentals Team.

Do remember that paying your rent late is a breach of your tenancy agreement though, and can lead to your eviction if you do it persistently.

Robert_Sterling_3

tbs624 wrote: »

They can put what they like in their tenancy agreements but there is no guarantee that their hand-drafted clauses will be enforceable.

How the clauses are drafted makes no difference.
What they say does.

Rawz

Well thanks for the replies guys, i pay £240/month so this seems like bulls*** to me! We have had MASSIVE problems with our letting agency, more than enough evidence to put on them with harrasment because of a dispute with our landlord, and also the fact i now realise they didnt fulfil terms they agreed to (renovation/repairs to the house) which i have read in the contract, i will be seeking legal advice if after i visit them they dont back down, i dont intend to pay them a penny even if i admit i was late on some payments.