Rental Agents re-charging tennant to resign

jhsam

Hello I was wondering if any LL's could help me here......

We rent a property and its through a letting agents, so we know the landlord must be paying them a monthly fee for managing his property, we are currently coming to the end of our 2nd year in the property.

When we came to the end of the contract (12 months) last year and the agents contacted us and said that they would issue a new contract for 6 months and it would be a £60 charge for that and a property inspection. Then 6 months later it would be the same charge again. DH rang up and spoke to the manager who waived the fee and after a lot of convincing agreed to a 12 month contract again.

Once again we are coming to the end of the contract in May and we have the letter saying we will need to pay £60, we have contacted them and DH said we were not happy to pay this charge and what did it cover. They advised it covered the printing out and signing of a new (6 month again even though we want a yr) contract and a house inspection (which when they did it last time took them less than 5 minutes) so DH said well we don't want an inspection thats you or the LL who is requesting that so we shouldnt have to pay and we won't bother signing a contract we will go on a rolling contract from now on then. The lady was very rude and got DH's back up a bit as she said we will be paying the £60 if we like it or not, it shouldn't have been waived last time and that person has left now and even if we do a rolling contract the fee will still be £60 and that will just cover the inspection and if we don't like it we have to leave.

I have 2 collegues who rent houses out (through different agents) and they say the agents charge the tenants nothing to renew a contract and any inspections are covered by their monthly charge and my parents rent out my grandads house in another area so she contacted them and they also advised they do not charge the tenants to renew the contract.

Is this a comon thing???

We don't want to move but it's becomming a matter of principal, its basically adding £10 a month to our rent as there saying we will have to do this every 6 months now.

Will the landlords address be on our contract (which I will dig out tonight) as we know he lives a few streets on from us, but not sure where abouts, were happy to go round and speak to him about this and advise the agents are going to loose him some good tennants who have a good chance of being there for the next 5 years - surley its in the LL's best interest to get the agents to not (ever) charge us this fee so he doesn't loose us as good tenants who pay every month on time and have done for 2 years!

yved33

Hi, i can't be of any help really, but just to say ... our managing agent does that too, but he charges £100 ! I didn't know that not all agents / LL's did this :-l

EastMidsGal

When my 12 month fixed contract ended my agents wanted to issue their 'standard' renewal contract, which after I pressed them they basically admitted offered me no more than a periodical tenancy that I would go on to anyway once the initial contract ran out, so they wanted to charge me £45 for basically doing nothing and offering me nothing more than I would get anyway!

They got really snotty with me and said I didn't have to sign it if I didn't want to, so I didn't, went on to a periodical tenancy with the same terms I would have been given anyway and saved myself £45.

G_M

It's common. Letting agents are in business to make money so they.... make money. Have you had contact with the landlord? Yes, he's paying 'his' agent a fee - does he even know they are charging you too? He may not be happy about it.

You have another option. Refuse to (or simply don't) sign the new contract. When your current fixed term contract ends you will automatically move to a periodic contract. The day after the FT expires, provided you a) don't move out and b) continue to pay rent, you will have a monthly periodic tenancy.

This will continue indefinately until one side or the other ends it. To end it (at any time) you have to give the landlord one months notice (ending with the monthly rental period). The LL has to give you two months. No fee cn be charged for simply moving onto a periodic tenany. You need do nothing. Nor does the LL or agent.

The downside is the LL can give you 2 months notice at any time so you have less security, but if you are good tenants and he was offering you a new fixed term, why should he? The upside is no fee, and more flexibility as you can leave when you want.

Voyager2002

G_M is absolutely right. However, we don't know what the agents will tell the landlord. It is in the agent's interest to persuade landlord to give notice, so that they can then find new tenants and charge a whole new set of fees. It is therefore very much in the tenant's interest to make an effort to find the landlord so that they can talk directly about what is going on.

G_M

Voyager2002 wrote: »

G_M is absolutely right. However, we don't know what the agents will tell the landlord. It is in the agent's interest to persuade landlord to give notice, so that they can then find new tenants and charge a whole new set of fees. It is therefore very much in the tenant's interest to make an effort to find the landlord so that they can talk directly about what is going on.

True.
An address for the serving of Notices on the LL should be on the contract. This may be the LL's address, but may be c/o the agent.
A written request for the LL's address to the agent must be complied with in 21 days.

jhsam

Thanks very much everyone for the replies.

When DH advised the LA we would go on a periodic contract they advised that was fine but we would still have to pay the £60, stating it also covers an inspection of the property so they are basically saying either way if we want to stay then we have to pay.

I did say to DH that they could be telling the LL anything, so if his address isn't on the contract we will go to his street tomorrow evening and try and find him (we know his car!) and we will explain about this £60 they are trying to charge us and that they have told us basically pay up or get out and he is loosing money & good long term tenants if we leave!

princeofpounds

If you pay £4 you can download the land registry entry for your property that may give you the exact address of your landlord. There will be an address, only question is if it is current.

The 'lady' on the phone is lying about the necessity of a charge. As advised, you automatically enter a rolling contract according to the law (statutory = law, periodic = rolling). This is the same as your current tenancy in all respects except for the terms about duration and notice. It costs you and the LL nothing.

I will underline the importance of speaking direct to your LL. It is not unheard of for agents to give notice to tenants without permission, and to tell the LL that the tenants decided to leave. If you find him/her agreeable, you might even decide to simply refuse to pay any charge without the landlord or you telling the agents that you have been in contact. Then see how the agents react. They will either go away, harrass you illegitimately, or possibly even lie to the landlord which would show their true colours.

00ec25

IF the £60 charge is described in the tenancy agreeemnt then you have signed that agreement and must abide by it because, technically, when you go to a monthly periodic tenancy then the terms of the previous contract roll over in full (except for the notice periods). This may explain why the LA is so convinced you'll have to pay it.

so check your contract, if its not in there ignore it as its a non contractual demand for money which you can put in the bin (or other appropriate place ...)

if it is there check very carefully what it refers to, does it differentiate between renewing a contract or performing an inspection?
It is certainly unsusual for the tenant to have to pay for the inspection, but quite possible for the LA to enforce via a small claim breach of contract if you agreed to that in the contract.

G_M

jhsam wrote: »

Thanks very much everyone for the replies.

When DH advised the LA we would go on a periodic contract they advised that was fine but we would still have to pay the £60, stating it also covers an inspection of the property so they are basically saying either way if we want to stay then we have to pay.

I did say to DH that they could be telling the LL anything, so if his address isn't on the contract we will go to his street tomorrow evening and try and find him (we know his car!) and we will explain about this £60 they are trying to charge us and that they have told us basically pay up or get out and he is loosing money & good long term tenants if we leave!

This is just rubbish. They simply want their fee. Refuse.

If the fee is for the new contract, moving to a periodic tenancy does not involve a new contract - therefore no fee.

If the fee is for the inspection, tell them you did not request an inspection, do not want one, and if the landlord wants one, he should pay, not you.

If they STILL persist, just ignore their request for payment, invoice whatever. They are not going to take you to court for it and if they did, they'd lose. Do not be intimidated.

And yes, if possible, deal with the LL direct. HIS concern is a reliable tenant who looks after his property, pays the rent on time, and stays longterm so he does not have to worry about finding a replacement. He is not concerned about the fee, in fact would probobly be shocked that his agent is putting at risk a good tenant relationship!

jhsam

thanks for the replies, I just thought I would give you an update!!

I checked the contract last night and could find no mention of said Fee, so I contacted the Agents and spoke to a girl who said "oh it's in point 19.7" I quickly flicked through the contract to find it goes to 19.6 for us, so I advised her this and she said "just a moment" and then another woman who is the snotty director came on and said "this is michelle, its in the contract" so I said ours went to 19.6 and she said that "oh yes I see that your on the old contract its the new ones that have the new point in it" so I went on to say that they can't just make up charges then willy nilly if I havn't signed and agreed to pay to it, Or I might charge them £60 for walking up my drive just cause I want too. She laughed and said it's nothing the same. I said well in theory it is, as I can't make you pay my made up charge anymore than you can make me pay yours. She said "no I can't make you pay it but the landlord doesn't want rolling contract tennants so said he will serve you notice, and we will only issue your contract if you pay the £60"

This really got my back up as to me that amounts to blackmail, as its basically saying "either pay £60 or you can leave" so I asked for the LL's mobile number and she responded saying "im not giving you that" so I said I would just go round his house as I knew where he lived but I just thought it was better if I rung him, she laughed at me and said in a very smarmy smirky voice "well actually he has moved" so I said I knew where his GF lived as his car is outside that house a lot and I will have no problems knocking on her door but that actually by law she is required to provide me with his details if I request them, so she said "well I will give you his business address thats belldene post office" and that was all she would give. I had to end the conversation before I said something I would regret.

Trying to contact the post office to see if we can contact the LL or get him to ring us as DH seems to think she won't of told him WHY we want to go on a rolling contract just that we want one.

Im really really cross there trying to blackmail us, this is a national company, how can they treat us like this, they are a national Company (Whitegates)