Foxtons rental commission

mynameisdave

I had a friend that was working for Foxtons at the time that BBC docu was on TV. From what hse has told me I wouldnt trust them as a customer or client.

17% is a huge amolunt (presumably thats 17% plus VAT). OK so I'm not in London but I pay 10% plus VAT and the new tenant fee is £250

Out,_Vile_Jelly

Everyone I know who's ever rented or bought in London has a story about how much they hate Foxtons. A letting agent once told me how glad he was to no longer work for them. As a "perfect" tenant with excellent references I would never go near them.

Compare all the agencies in the area on price and details from your point of view, then get a mate to ring up and pretend to be a prospective tenant for your type of property to see how they respond.

prudryden

Winkworths seems to be professional in the West London area.

925dancer

I worked for Foxtons way back in the day, it was my first property job and I was a bit green to the London property market.

I lasted a whole 3 months!

Their fees are higher than everyone else, to tenants and landlords, they overprice everything and promise the world.

I wouldn't recommend them to anyone, go with a good, local, recommended agent who will give you top notch service at a fair price.

Foxtons never negotiated on fees when I was there. Most agents start off at 10% let + 5% management and can usually be negotiated down to 8/9% + 5%. The last London agent I worked in charged no additional move-in fees to the landlord on top of the letting and management ones and only charged the tenants what we were charged by the referencing agencies.

Of course this is my knowledge of the north London market, agents may charge differently in other areas.

There are good agents out there, it's just a case of finding out who they are!

princeofpounds

Winkworths seems to be professional in the West London area.

haha I guess we all have our stories, but my experience was disastrous. Rented a place through them only to find out that the previous tenant was still in occupation when I arrived! Thankfully they were on their way out, but winkworths were no help whatsoever. It wasn't as if we had even asked for the date in particular, if they had only bothered to actually check the paperwork.

I've generally found that there are two aspects to letting agencies. One is the 'cultural' aspect (which is where Foxtons tends to fall down), the other is the 'individual' aspect (which seems to be the winkworths problem in this instance, they were ok otherwise but it was a pretty serious mistake). Bad culture tends to attract bad individuals, but bad individuals can pop up anywhere.

After using 5 agencies in London to rent, I've had a good experience (i.e. nothing actually going wrong, we aren't talking red carpet treatment) with just two. One was a local place and the other was Douglas and Gordon.

sooz

As Mayfair said, your number is now on their database. I'd suggest changing your phone number. You will be chased.

They don't take no for an answer. Even after politely declining their 'services'. I'd try 'f*** off or I'm calling the police'

and their management is abysmal. A neigboring flat uses them, and it took 7 weeks and 14 calls, and 3 missed appointments to get them to fix a blocked gutter that was damaging their managed property. We called their client, abroad, to try to get them to chase their agents too- they had not been informed.

sooz

As for the 40% more, install property bee & see how fast they drop those prices.

DizzyDasher

We rented through them once. They messed up everything they possibly could (gave us the keys to the wrong place, gave the wrong starting meter readings to the energy companies (swapped elec and gas readings, took ages to sort out), told us it was furnished when it was not, which the landlord then sorted out to stop us walking away on the day of signing (the first time we saw the contract which said it was unfurnished) about 2 days before we were due to move in, surprise last minute fees, etc.) We got to know our landlord over the following couple of years and it turned out they were just as bad with him and he hated them too. He dumped them as soon as he could.

I would avoid. By contrast I've had good experiences with John D Wood (very professional, reasonable fees, good communication - did once accidentally lock me into my own flat but came back quickly and were very apologetic about it :rotfl:), passable with Atkinson McLeod (tried it on with fees but were open to negotiation and reasonably well organised), and an independent agent (a bit disorganised but honest and helpful). I think you can do better.

They ARE pushy (e.g. the flat we rented with them was not really in the area we were looking in at all, so maybe another agent would not have found us as tenants), and maybe they can get a higher rent or shorter voids than other agents. But 40%??? Really??? Not unless they have some exceptionally stupid tenants on their books. When I went to see things with them they always massively over-asked on the rent. I have paid asking rent before, but with this place it was so obviously over-priced that we offered 10% under asking and were accepted. 40% over is unbelievable though - it will stand out like a sore thumb on any property search, and I never heard of any tenant only using one agent (let alone only using Foxtons!!!)

Dubaidu

Can anyone reccommend a good letting agent ( for landlord) in LONDON areas - Maida Vale, Little Venice, Paddington, St John's Wood? I have already had the Foxtons experience. It for long let - but I don't think the market is very stong at the moment (?) thanks

DVardysShadow

Dubaidu wrote: »

Can anyone reccommend a good letting agent ( for landlord) in LONDON areas - Maida Vale, Little Venice, Paddington, St John's Wood? I have already had the Foxtons experience. It for long let - but I don't think the market is very stong at the moment (?) thanks

Start a new thread please!

Go to http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16 and use the new thread button. Your problem is largely irrelevant to to the topic of the current thread.

edit: New thread at https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4109123