Tenant referencing: How much were you asked to pay?

tbs624

Letting Agents are unregulated. They can currently get away with charging whatever they like on "admin " fees. Anyone can set up in business as a Letting Agent.

Contact your local LL association and find LLs who self-manage their properties. The most they will probably ask for is the true costs of the credit check which can range froma round 16 quid to 60, depedning on how in-depth it is.

If you as the T have, or your guarantor has, CCJs etc discuss it with a LL/LA prior to coughing up fees.

The differences in fees can be down to whther the LA/LL uses a specific type of rent guarantee insurance which will require certain criteria to be met or it can just be down to individual LAs actual costs and/or greed. In some areas there does almost seem to be a cartel with many of the LAs charging similar amounts.

Did suggest that the MSE Martin could take up the issue of these extortionate fees but he is fully occupied with all the credit crunch issues at the moment.

Always ask the LA for a breakdown of exactly what their admin fees cover and seek to negotiate on them.

Ts could also raise the issue of these fees via their local MP, the Housing Minister and both the CAB and Shelter's campaigns offices. (They can all be contacted online) Unless Ts start making a concerted stand against these fees the practice will continue , and the fees will become ever-increasing.

adg1

jayss wrote: »

Annoying the place I wanted was with dearest agent(massive deposit too for unfurnished) around but they were the only ones who did things like call me back and actually turn up to viewings :rolleyes:

Just one of those moments that the statement 'you get what you pay for' comes to mind. The cheapest LAs will often do the least work for every involved party as they can't cover the costs of doin any more.

barnaby-bear

Manual_Reversion wrote: »

I'm serious about two rental properties, on with different agents. One agent wants £99 and the other wants £200 for 'referencing'. Why such a variation?

Is it just me or does anybody else object to paying for this? If the landlord wants to check my credentials then he can pay for it himself!

I do a search online and I can [STRIKE]'roger'[/STRIKE] 'reference' myself for £25. So why does the agent want £200!? Smacks of scam to me.

I find this particularly objectionable as I'm offering six months' rent up-front so I'm effectively zero risk! To be honest I'm more concerned about the landlords finacial position than he should be of mine; anybody else in this situation and what have you done about it? Has anyone referenced their landlord?

Sorry for the rant, and in the case that this has been covered a thousand times!

Regards.

Bad idea - LL has no reason to attend to repairs, at least you can legally have repairs done and take it out of future rent (After following correct protocols) if the LL is tardy / negligent if you pay monthly...
As loads of people have found the LL might be desperate for that lump sum if he's some ropey BTL pyramid empire - and may use your rent now to pay off some debt and there may not be money to pay the mortgage on where you are living in 3 months, cue repo and eviction with no come back and lost rent...

keithing-ger

I run a small letting agency and I charge £75 per tenant. Lowest around methinks.

The physical cost is about £20, so strictly speaking the other £55 is to cover actually running the references, chasing anything up and having a property off the market that could conceivably be losing potential tenants as the person being referenced could fail.

alunharford

One word: Gumtree.

In this market, I won't consider paying the landlord additional fees (to pay their agency or otherwise) in order to move in - unless it's made clear up front in all of their adverts (ie. £xpcm + £x agency fees on rightmove etc).
I don't want to deal with landlords that advertise dishonestly (or instruct an agency to do so), and I don't need to - there are loads of properties on the market at the moment owned by honest, decent people.

I remember I walked away from a deal for this reason when I was looking to rent 6 months ago - the place is still on the market.

eco-friendly_2

there are loads of properties on the market at the moment owned by honest, decent people.

there are loads of properties on the market at the moment owned by honest, decent gullable people.

sigh....

Manual_Reversion

The agent of the place I particularly want to rent charges £200 for referencing! If this was a true reflection of the cost involved then I could live with it but internet searches show price ranges of £10 to £35 for the service, which makes £200 look like blatant profiteering.

It's sheer nautiness, but I guess that once you like the place, 'see' yourself living there and agree a rent, the agents bank on us not wanting to jeapodise the deal for the sake of a couple of hundred quid, however immoral it seems.

lindsaygalaxy

£100 + vat per person. Wouldnt go through a letting agency again.

Manual_Reversion

lindsaygalaxy wrote: »

£100 + vat per person. Wouldnt go through a letting agency again.

Was it the £115 cost that leads you to that conclusion or some other impression of the agents?

I have only used a letting agent twice so far (the two times that I have rented) and my experience of them hasn't been bad by any means. I guess we were fortunate in both cases as nothing 'went wrong' and our only dealings with them were at the start and end of the tenancy.

bristol_pilot

It's a tenant's market - I wouldn't pay a penny for 'referencing' or any other fees either. Rent directly from a landlord and you won't have to pay a penny in fees. And landlords who are daft enough to use these agencies will get what they deserve - a void.