Landlords and letting agents

macaque_2

Many landlords and letting agents have been taking scandalous liberties for years. Lets hope they will start learning how to be more reasonable and professional.

But the boot is, now, on the other foot. Letting agents are taking on scores of properties - but not finding any takers. Rents are falling. Tenants are waking up to the fact that they can negotiate hard.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/mar/21/buying-to-let-patrick-collinson

Geenie

LL's should only use reputable, long established LA's and should read the small print in any contract, as should the tenant. I think the way LA's charge for renewing AST's which can roll over without the need to do this is dreadful, and hopefully they will realise this soon when people stop using them.

Cleaver

Interesting article and no doubt a lot of truth in it.

When we rented out our property we picked a local lettings agency who we'd heard good things about, but we wanted a relationship where we manage them, rather than vice versa. I see the people who rent our house as a my customer and the lettings agency as a business I employ to help keep my customer happy. The letting agency found this a bit odd at first.

We met with the letting agency before signing up with them and crossed out about half their fees: contract renewal fees and various stupid stipulations in their contracts for tenants. For example, they wanted to charge around £40 or £50 for the tenants to just renew their contract. This is madness: you have a customer who has obviously enjoyed your 'product', wants more of your product so you charge them a fee just for the privilege? Very odd.

Basically, we said to the lettings agency that they get their 12% from us and any other fee to the tenant is wavied (apart from damage of course).

The article also points out that the market is saturated, which is very true. There are loads of houses down our street for rent compared to two years ago. We know that our tenants are in for the long term as after two years in the house they asked last month for a new 18 month contract, which we were happy to give them. We also gave them April 09 as a surprise 'rent free' month to say thank you for being there so long and guaranteeing our income for the next 18 months. Only seemed fair really, and hopefully it will increase our reputations as decent landlords.

In summary (and after a really waffley post - apologies, it's early) it's up to the LL to manage the LA. If the tenant is getting stupid fees, the LL could really do something about it.

stevetodd

macaque wrote: »

Many landlords and letting agents have been taking scandalous liberties for years.

The link is not about Landlords taking liberties, it is all about letting agents taking liberties against mainly tenants BUT ALSO landlords

Alan_M_2

Slightly off topic as my property is commercial.

I've just negotiated a rent reduction fixed for the net three years on my warehouse in Gatwick from £7.75 sq/ft to £3.50 sq/ft. That's pretty much a 55% reduction.

This was easy to achieve and took no argument at all due to the enourmous amount of empty commercial property available.

I could walk out of this building and get into another with a 6 month rent free period and rates paid for the same term.

My landlords offer reflects this, they made the offer good enough that it isn't worth the hassle of moving.

I'm interested to see how this will permeate through into the residential market.

dizziblonde

Interesting to see landlords think this is all a rip off as well. As a tenant I think a lot of what letting agents charge is taking the mickey - since I last rented property the admin fees etc have quadrupled. My last flat I ended up renting for four and a half years - even though we'd outgrown it and could have got a better place elsewhere - the reason I stayed so long was that I realized having a good landlord and agent who generally got things sorted the following day and were pleasant to deal with was worth paying a few quid more a month and staying put for.

This lot we're renting through now are clowns - they'd charge for the fresh air in the place if they could. Trouble is that getting somewhere a decent size where we wanted that allowed a cat limited our choice a bit, and they won't hold properties for too long so you're limited as to time you have available to shop around. I don't begrudge initial admin charges etc but I really really resent the annual cost of renewing the tenancy which basically amounts to a couple of hundred quid for 5 minutes with the copy-past tool in word and a bit of ink.

We can't buy though so we're kind of stuck, and we like this house and so we sit here praying the landlord won't decide to shift it the moment house prices take an upturn again as I'm not flipping moving again in a long while after the stress of the last one!

chucky

a good article and lots of truth in it.

agents will take adavantage if you let them - they currently need quality property.
i just deal with two - i have good relationships with them, they tend to look after me as far as tenants go.

the thing is that the landlord is the agents customer not the tenant unfortunately.
they just pay the landlord and are less important to the agent, which should never be the case.

macaque_2

stevetodd wrote: »

The link is not about Landlords taking liberties, it is all about letting agents taking liberties against mainly tenants BUT ALSO landlords

A well run BTL market is a great asset to the country. My oppostion relates to people (and their agents) who behave dihonestly, unfairly or unprofessionally. I have been severly burnt by such idiots on occassions.

Landlords appoint agents and it is therefore their responsibility to ensure that the agents treat the tenants fairly, courteously and professionally.