Tenancy Extension - Fees

FStewart

Hello

I'm looking for some help with regards to a letter I have received regarding the flat that I currently rent.

I will have been living in the property for a year in August and have received a letter from my LA saying that the landlord has offered to extend my lease for a further 6 months.

However, the LA has asked us us to pay them £125 "to cover the cost of extending your tenancy".

The last time we renewed our lease (on the same property), there were no fees to extend our tenancy.

Does anyone know whether this is now common practice for LAs or is my LA just being unreasonable? £125 seems very expensive to simply change a couple of dates on a tenancy agreement!

Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

F

BitterAndTwisted

Agents love finding reasons to charge fat fees! You can decide to not respond to the agent's suggestion at all but if your landlord has instructed them and wants the comfort of knowing the rent will be coming in for another six months, you have a choice: do nothing and risk being given notice (this will give the agents the opportunity to charge the landlord a nice, fat "tenant finding fee") or contact the landlord and find out whether they would be happy for your tenancy to continue as a periodic one. That means you will have to give one month's notice to end the tenancy and the would need to give you two.

FStewart

Thanks BitterAndTwisted...

The second option you suggested about contacting the landlord direct sounds viable - its just so frustrating being asked to pay £125 when there was no charge 6 months ago!

Cheers :beer:

F

prudryden

Perhaps you could check with the agent to see if there has been an error by a part-time clerk or something. It doesn't sound right. Too expensive for just a renewal memorandum. Maybe someone in the office got it wrong and they think they have to do credit checks again.

nzseries1

The renewal fee in my tenancy agreement is £180 + VAT. I asked for them to drop it to £30 + VAT (what I considered to be one hour's work). They came back immediately with £60 + VAT.

While I still think that's far too high to simply call the landlord, and then print out a new agreement with the dates changed, I still managed to get two-thirds off the original fee just by asking!

jjlandlord

nzseries1 wrote: »

The renewal fee in my tenancy agreement is £180 + VAT. I asked for them to drop it to £30 + VAT (what I considered to be one hour's work). They came back immediately with £60 + VAT.

Well, clearly such a big and quick drop means that your only reply should be "£30 or nothing".

FStewart

Thanks for the replies guys - much appreciated.

I've emailed my LA tonight so here's hoping for a positive response. I'll keep you informed (that is if you're still interested!)

Cheers

F

FStewart

LA has agreed to waive the £125 fee which is great although I'm now more p!ssed off with them that they tried to charge me in the first place!

Thanks for the advice.

:beer: