Charge AND VAT on overpaid rent - is it reasonable/allowed?

elliven

I've recently vacated a house and today received my full deposit back. However... I forgot to stop the standing order at my bank and so the letting agent has refunded the month's overpayment, but has charged me £25 plus VAT (so £28.75) for making the refund.

Can they do that? The amount seems excessive, the VAT seems wrong. Any thoughts/guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks!

mark5

£25 plus 15% = £28.75

Once a company reaches a certain turnover they have to charge VAT on income.

orangeslimes

mark5 wrote: »

£25 plus 15% = £28.75

Once a company reaches a certain turnover they have to charge VAT on income.

It depends...not everything has VAT on it so it might depend how they describe the charge as bank charges don't have VAT on them.

BitterAndTwisted

If they're registered for VAT, which they obviously are, then naturally they have to charge VAT on any charges which they impose. Twenty-five quid for refunding your own money isn't business, it's usury. Damned cheek!

JasonLVC

When a bank charges you it is exempt from VAT.

What the letting agent is charging for is administrative services which is a standard rated supply.

Its still a bit steep and cheeky of them to charge you for something that is probably automatic and takes a speccy girl in the office about 3 seconds to deal with.

Still, that's letting agents for you, they've got to make a profit somehow in this economy?:rolleyes:

DVardysShadow

I think I would be tempted to take them to the small claims court. I think I would pay £35 to get that back on principle. On the employment board you see cases where employers and ex employers ask for overpayments of salary to be refunded. I think anyone would be laughed out over there for making a charge to refund the money.

N79

Before charging off to court I thought I might post the opposide point of view. To give some context I believe that most solicitors charge GBP35 or higher for bank transfers when conveyancing.

GBP25 might not be excessive if the bank charges for the transfer (business bank accounts are not normally fee free) plus the agents costs in time (tracing the overpayment, finding the OPs bank details as they were do longer a T etc and then there is the cost of contacting the OP (by letter?) to inform them of the problem. Overall GBP25 does not, to me, seem unreasonable, given that all of the fault lies with the OP.

The moral of the story is to make sure that you cancel standing orders in good time when vacating properties.

JasonLVC

N79 wrote: »

Before charging off to court I thought I might post the opposide point of view. To give some context I believe that most solicitors charge GBP35 or higher for bank transfers when conveyancing.

GBP25 might not be excessive if the bank charges for the transfer (business bank accounts are not normally fee free) plus the agents costs in time (tracing the overpayment, finding the OPs bank details as they were do longer a T etc and then there is the cost of contacting the OP (by letter?) to inform them of the problem. Overall GBP25 does not, to me, seem unreasonable, given that all of the fault lies with the OP.

The moral of the story is to make sure that you cancel standing orders in good time when vacating properties.

The agent would be sitting in the office anyway and still getting paid whether they are making teas or tracing payments. So £25 to write a letter to the customer or telephone them?.

As for the solicitor charging £35. that'll be because solicitors make CHAPS payments which are same day money transfers, hence the charge. For the OP, the letting agent would simply notice an extra £x in the bank account, they only had to write a cheque to the tenant (money in/money back out), job done. As I said before, a 3 second job.

What happened to good old fashioned customer service?. Customer made a mistake, why not just fix it?. Instead, it appears a genuine error is a green light to rip someone off. Typical letting agent tactics.

Would the customer be able to charge the letting agent if the AGENT had took too much out on a DD. I doubt it VERY much.

moromir

JasonLVC wrote: »

The agent would be sitting in the office anyway and still getting paid whether they are making teas or tracing payments. So £25 to write a letter to the customer or telephone them?.

What has the individual agent receiving their own wages got to do with the Agency charging a standard fee for a service it has carried out? N79 provided you with more than enough justification for the charge - "GBP25 might not be excessive if the bank charges for the transfer (business bank accounts are not normally fee free) plus the agents costs in time (tracing the overpayment, finding the OPs bank details as they were do longer a T etc and then there is the cost of contacting the OP (by letter?) to inform them of the problem."

JasonLVC wrote: »

What happened to good old fashioned customer service?. Customer made a mistake, why not just fix it?. Instead, it appears a genuine error is a green light to rip someone off. Typical letting agent tactics.
.

What happened to good old managing your affairs properly? S: Why do you think it is in order for a company to work for free for an ex-tenant who can't remember to stop a standing order that has been happening at the same time every month for at least six months?

It is an unfortunate occurance, but it happened and the agency was inconvenienced by all the extra work and correspondance involved in returning the payment, "Overall GBP25 does not, to me, seem unreasonable, given that all of the fault lies with the OP." N97 quoted for truth.

Regards

DVardysShadow

Effort to refund? About £5. Let's be realistic.

N79

JasonLVC wrote: »

The agent would be sitting in the office anyway and still getting paid whether they are making teas or tracing payments. So £25 to write a letter to the customer or telephone them?.

As for the solicitor charging £35. that'll be because solicitors make CHAPS payments which are same day money transfers, hence the charge. For the OP, the letting agent would simply notice an extra £x in the bank account, they only had to write a cheque to the tenant (money in/money back out), job done. As I said before, a 3 second job.

What happened to good old fashioned customer service?. Customer made a mistake, why not just fix it?. Instead, it appears a genuine error is a green light to rip someone off. Typical letting agent tactics.

Would the customer be able to charge the letting agent if the AGENT had took too much out on a DD. I doubt it VERY much.

Just a point of fact as we can all have different opinions on the validity of the charge - the T is not the LA's customer. The LA, in fact, has no contractual relationship to the T.

It is also worth noting that an agent may not have an address for the T - after all, they no longer live at the LL's property. More checking and therefore more time needed before sending cheques etc.