Rip off reference fee

Nyssa_82

Hi,

I am currently looking to let a property in Winchester, found the perfect place, and was then asked to pay £200 plus vat PER PERSON for a reference fee. Now, being that there are three of us moving into a two bed place, my maths suggests that it comes to a grand total of £705 pounds! That is obviously before a deposit and the first month rent being taken into consideration. That brings the grand total of a move into an average two bed house to over 3 grand!

Does this seem a little excessive to anybody else???

DVardysShadow

Nyssa_82 wrote: »

.... my maths suggests that it comes to a grand total of £705 pounds!

Does this seem a little excessive to anybody else???

No, that sounds a little under. I make it £720.

jjlandlord

Of course this is outrageous. Just walk away if you're not prepared to pay...

sofaspud1234

DVardysShadow wrote: »

No, that sounds a little under. I make it £720.

Yes about par for the course I think.

Nyssa_82

Whoops! Forgot the rate of VAT was higher now. Duh!

Helen1971

I've always found letting agents to be shameless in their ruses to extract money from both tenants and landlords. It's been illegal for a long time for agents to attempt to levy a charge for showing people details of the properties they have available, so they screw the money out of you in different ways (reference fees, inventory charges, credit check fees etc).

I suspect that estate agents aren't making much money from house sales at present and are milking all they can from the letting side of the business instead.

In your position, I'd walk away. £720!!!!

G_M

Pay £4 to the Land Registry and find th landlord. Contact and tell him his agent is a) ripping off and b) driving away his prospective tenants.

marliepanda

What is considered a reasonable referencing fee?

Last time I paid one it was £75 per person (5 years ago now mind) and the last quote I got from a different agent was £150 per person...

jjlandlord

marliepanda wrote: »

What is considered a reasonable referencing fee?

Whatever you'll pay without thinking it's a rip off

princeofpounds

I'd do what G_M says. But I'd leave it a couple of days first. You would be surprised how often the reference fees drop if it means losing a let... (unless the rental market is very tight).

I've said it a hundred times, but rentals are a heterogeneous illiquid market. Heterogeneous meaning that they are all very different (you can't just substitute a 3 bed for a 2 bed for a 1 bed for example) and illiquid meaning they don't come up very often. It's a posh way of saying that in the specific window you are looking, there might only be a couple of suitable properties. Sometimes even with the same agent.

This permits oligopolistic behaviours on the parts of the letting agents, such as astronomic application fees. I.e. they try to screw people because they can (and because it is not money directly out of landlord's pockets, only indirectly, there is little corrective pressure from their clients)

rentergirl

There should be no fee charged to tenants at all. The people who say it's fair here will I bet be landlords, or letting agents. The agents charge a weekly percentage to the owner for this. Oh - and remember, if you do pay, chase up your referee: chances are they were never contacted, as has happened to me on more than one occasion.