£150 admin fee to renew a contract?!?

KHH

Thanks for your help everyone, there's nothing in our contract about this charge so we're going to try speaking to the LL first and see if we can renew the contract direct with him. If not I think we'll go for the rolling contract option as I refuse to pay the LA £150!

Wee_Willy_Harris

Just a thought, but if your LL were to send a letter confirming that he would like you to remain for at least another xx months on your current terms, that should suffice.

clutton_2

suffice for what purpose WWH ?

Wee_Willy_Harris

To be blunt, security for the tenant without the admin fee.

clutton_2

a letter will not give a tenant any kind of security.. the only thing which will is an AST properly signed....

Wee_Willy_Harris

I disagree.

patch99

I notice mention of LL being able to sack LA earlier in this thread. I'm a LL just coming to the end of my first tenancy, and because it was my first one I used a LA although not a full management service - I deal direct with the tenant. They're great and I don't particularly want either them or me to be stuck with "money for old rope" fees. I want to be able to take over the arrangement direct and issue a new AST agreement for the next period, effectively sacking my LA. I had it in my head that I could do this with the payment of a severance fee of 6 months' worth of LA fees. Now, having looked in more detail at my T&Cs with my LA, I see that I am liable to pay them fees for as long as those same tenants stay in the property, whether the LA was involved in the renewal or not. Obviously I've signed this so may be stuck with it, but I guess I'm interested to know whether it's normal, reasonable, etc. Strikes me as a bit heavy-handed!

Wee_Willy_Harris

They would argue, with some jutification, that it was their efforts and actions that secured you such a good tenant and, without them, you may not have found such a good deal. Their reward, therefor, should be a small proportion of the total benefits you received thanks to their actions.

clutton_2

""I see that I am liable to pay them fees for as long as those same tenants stay in the property, whether the LA was involved in the renewal or not.""

now might not be the most appropriate time to be reading what you signed........

clutton_2

i recently used an agent to find me a tenant and i crossed out 3 clauses i was not happy with.. one of them was that they wanted 2% of the selling price if the tenant subsequently bought the house.. my arguement was that they were employed to find a tenant only, and would have been paid a months rent to find a tenant and that i was not prepared to pay such an exorbitant fee... knowing that the tenant almost certainly would never buy the house, i agreed, and so did they, a fee of £250 - otherwise i could have been signing away thousands of pounds.....

if you dont ask - you dont get.....

but if you dont read what you sign... you dont deserve to "get"