Estate agent admin fees

tjr_2

Are estate agents entitled to charge whatever they wish?

I've been charged £225 admin fee for the rental property I'm about to move into. I can't begin to think of what they have done for me that could possibly cost £225. Couple of phone calls, photocopied a contract maybe.

Can anything be done to get this back?

They also charge £60 contract renewal and £70 inventory! Again, for little to no work!

MissBehaving

My brother is going through the same at the moment. He paid £65 for administration. They wrote to his previous landlord/estate agency for a reference. They phoned him today for another £35 for WRITING A LETTER??!?!?!

Are we in the wrong industry or WHAT?

UK007BullDog

Yes, I think we are.

Read the contract you have with them. They should have told you the fees they charge for their services.

The BTL investor pays them up to 15% (or even more at times, such ripoff) for "managing" the property. Then they also fleece the person renting the property.

I am totally in the wrong business.

arnie&caseysma!

Surely they should be charging the person that is actually renting the property out and not the tenant? I rented my house out for 6 months, found my own tenants, drew up my own inventory etc and paid £250 for the priviledge of the lawyer/estate agent to do the lease. As far as I am aware it didn't cost the tenants a single penny for the legal side of it, only their deposit and monthly rent which was paid direct to me!

silvercar

Some of the costs will be for a financial check on the tenants.

Barcode

A credit check costs £2. Personally, I'd be dubious about any estate agent charging this much. Mine tried to charge £50 for a contract renewal, but I avoided that by going onto a rolling tenancy agreement (if you do decide to go with them, ask for them that come renewal time).

I don't think much can be done now you have already paid

rosysparkle

A tenants credit check done by a specialist credit referencing agency costs considerably more than £2. I can't tell you how much we are charged as that's commercially sensitive info and I quite like my job so want to keep it, but I am informed that the agency that we use will do a check for a private individual (rather than a lettings agency) for £99.

It is the norm for agents to charge an administration fee when someone applies for a property. It's not surprising that the agent makes a profit out of it, that's what businesses do. One of the main reasons for charging a fee, apart from covering the cost of the credit check and drawing up the agreements, is to discourage timewasters which can be a huge problem.

The agent for which I work does not charge contract renewal fees, though I know a lot do.

An inventory should be charged to the landlord, not the tenant. I can't agree that an inventory is little or no work; an proper invent for a furnished house should take the best part of a day to prepare.

clutton_2

i charge my prospective tenants £50 for credit check/reference checks, which is non refundable if i am not able to offer them a tenancy after i have had the results of the checks back.

I do not take this money, nor do the checks, until they have filled in an extensive tenancy application form and i have spent a good half hour/hour with them. My time costs money. Doesn't yours ?

Sadly, there are professional "tenants" who make it their lifes work to go from one amateur landlord not paying any rent whatsoever. From my point of view, this is why such extensive (and possibly intrusive) checks are now necessary.

i always use forms recommended by a professional landlords association.

kit

We charge £100 per person or £150 per couple.
As mentioned above, we do have to pay for a credit check to be carried out and it does cost us a lot more than £2!!

We also write to employers, banks, landlords etc. Someone has to pay for our time on it.

We dont charge extra for inventories - its part and parcel of what we offer to the landlord. I agree with the person above; invents take time - if they are done properly they can take ages to write, and then you have to go back and type them up.

Renewals of tenancy are free if we manage the property - again, just part and parcel of what we offer the landlord.

Why is it people think we dont deserve to be paid?! We work hard and seem to get very little respect for it.

clutton_2

as Kit says, a good letting agent is worth his/her salt. You may think they do little work, but, when there is a problem tenant, Then you will know if you have paid your 10% for apparently nothing for months, but are now about to get a brilliant service.

i also manage for other landlords and indeed there are some months when i spend very little time on the account, but, other months take up Huge amounts of my time, organising repairs, inspecting them, paying the contractors, writing to landlords, writing to tenants when they stop paying the rent/damage the property.

i have lost track of the number of times i have been at a property awaiting prospective tenants who just dont turn up, and can't be bothered to send a text saying "sorry cannot come".

My 10% has to cover all my admin costs/travel/phone/time - its not a lot !!