Is this credit reference fee fair??

clutton_2

if all three of you are on the Agreement - then each son is signing the say that they are individually and severally responsible for the rent - THAT is why a credit check needs to be done - if you lose your job - who pays the rent ?

HB may not as you have 2 adults living with you and it may be assumed that they can pay

Jowo_2

Steep and unpopular but not unfair - if you aren't happy with the charge and the agent refuses to negotiate the charge, you are free to find another property with another agent or to find a landlord directly who is likely just to pass on a much lower charge (around £30) if they outsource the checks to a third party like tenantverify.co.uk.

mariposa

Many thanks to everyone who replied to my post with lots of very useful info. Here's some feedback. I explained to the agent from the outset that I didn't want my sons on the tenancy agreement. As far as I'm concerned it is my rental and I'm just putting a roof over their heads for a few months until my eldest can afford to share with his girlfriend again and my youngest is better and can move into a shared house with his friends. This fell on deaf ears, so I took almost everyone on here's advice and spoke to the landlord direct. I explained all this to him and re-emphasised that I was happy to pay the full six months rent up front. He was really nice about it and agreed that there was no point credit checking the boys as we already knew what the answer would be. As I said, I may as well have taken £200 out of the bank and thrown it down the nearest grid. He's going to speak to the agent and tell him that he's happy for them to just credit check me. So good news there.

Something else people may be interested in.... the property was advertised with 2 letting agents. I found out yesterday that had I picked the other one to call off the rightmove website - I didn't think it would matter which one I phoned, so arranged the viewing with the first one who answered my call - that agent wouldn't have even suggested credit checking my sons and would have only charged a flat fee of £100 for my credit check. So what I've learnt from this for the future is if a property is advertised with multiple agents on rightmove to ring and check their charges first.

Thanks once more to everyone who replied. Hope you found my feedback useful.