EA fees, my deposit and my rights?

tripleblack

Hi folks,

Sure you've heard similar before, done a search and can't find the specific answers though.

Anyway, a few months back it was time to renew my tenancy, i had three options.

1) 12 months
2) 6 months
3) Rolling month to month basis

All of these came with a (imo) overpriced EA fee of £60, i was to chose which option, tick, sign and send them a cheque :eek:

As i did not want to pay the fee I decided if i did nothing this would put me on a statutory periodic anyway and hope i may get away without the paying the fee :cool:

As you may have guessed i have now received a letter stating if i don't cough up within 5-6 days it will just be deducted from my deposit when i leave :mad:

Do i have any rights here or is do they have me by the short and curlies? I have not received another contract or seen any new paperwork so why should i have to pay this fee? Well they won't be getting it in the next 6 days anyway that i do know.....

Fire_Fox

Write to the letting agency and ask for a full breakdown of what the charges are composed of. Better still ignore the letter and let them try to deduct it from your deposit, I'd like to see them explain what work they had to do to put you onto a periodic tenancy!! Not sure why the threat of five days exists, that's nonsensical as they can't charge you twice for being 'late'.

DVardysShadow

Make this the active thread

BexInLondon

Is your deposit protected?

adg1

Maybe, one day, there will be a lettings thread where someone doesn't ask if the deposit is protected! I'd expect most LAs are up to speed on registering deposits nowadays unless they are truly awful at their job (I'm probably assuming too much for most LAs though :rolleyes: )

Can you not write to your landlord and ask him if he is willing to allow a periodic? You can write to the LA and they have to give you his full contact details by law within a specified time. Or pay £4 to get it from land registry website which is probably far quicker and more prudent given that your tenancy is running to an end fast.

You may find that the EA are playing the game they love: getting as much money as they can from a tenant in renewal fees after they have also taken your money upfront in referencing fees. The landlord may well be happy for a periodic as he'll save on EA fees too.

I'd also ask them to detail the fee they want to charge in relation to going to a periodic. It happens automatically at the end of your tenancy keeping the same terms as your agreement. Neither side has to do anything for it, not even print a new agreement with new dates.

Your deposit is for damages, dilapidations, unpaid utility bills and unpaid rent on leaving, etc. I don't think they can take their fees from it as its not what a deposit is for.