Letting agents advice needed please!

Wonder_Girl

Since I found this board today I’ll take advantage…

My partner and I are moving next month into a new rented property, However his current letting agents say they want £15 to provide a reference for the new agency. Can they do this? *text deleted as poster was having a mental breakdown at time of posting*

Thanks

inmypocketnottheirs

Don't see why not. Not to my knowledge. Are all tenants irresponsible?

kit

Wonder_Girl wrote:

And are all letting agents incompetent?

Thats not really a good way to get people to help you is it??

If you think all letting agents are incompetent then why ask them for their advice on here??!!

Wonder_Girl

I apologise for the last comment, i had just come off the phone when i posted this, i appreciate they are only doing their jobs but i don't understand why they have lost not one, not two but three copies of the agreement i have sent in! it makes me mad that i am paying for a service that thus far i am not getting. and then with the old company asking for yet more money i lost my rag. normally i would go to my mate who is a letting agent but she is on holiday and i wanted to know where I stood with this fee.

Again I apologise if I offended anybody I am just in the unfortunate and frustrating position of wanting a house that is being let by a new and apparently completely unorganised firm who are fraying my nerves to their limit.

VickyA_2

It seems to be normal to pay this fee and you're actually lucky that it's "only" £15. OH and I are serial renters and have paid this fee last year when we moved over here. Other friends in rented accommodation with different letting agents have had this too.

I think that the last admin fee that we had to pay was £150, including the preparation of the paperwork (printing it out) and the references.

kit

We dont charge for giving a reference for one of our tenants. Its just part and parcel of what we do.

We do charge a referencing fee for our new tenants though otherwise we couldnt afford to carry on trading!!

Wonder_Girl

Thank you Kit and VickyA

I don't mind paying the new agents as i know they have to get all the paperwork and do all the checks etc.

I do Object to paying the current agents £15 for a new referance tho, it seems a little unfair tbh.

Are the any guidelines to this anywhere? or any way round it that you know of?

I know it's only £15 but every penny counts at the minute and if i can get them to back down that would be great. although if i annoy them they might give a bad ref