Rip off reference fee

MoneyMagic01273

rentergirl wrote: »

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.

Same here - I've rented numerous properties over the last 10 years and I have been shocked (well...not really) that on more than one occasion, I have paid upwards of £150 per person for "references" in the past - only to later find out that no credit search/check was ever carried out and my referees were either never contacted at all, or on few occasions couple of them were simply sent a simple 10-second email template by the office admin, to complete and send back. All of a few minutes work, tops.

Its outrageous profiteering by many letting agents and it should be outlawed. Charging at all is debateable for some, however I personally don't mind them covering their true and reasonable costs - but there is no excuse in this day and age for fees like this to exceed £50-75 per person maximum. Andcertainly not when references are carried out in the manner described above.

Credit checks can be carried out very cheaply, online these days either in-house or through a 3rd party - and references can also be carried out with incredible ease via email. Its an inexcusable rip off much of the time.

sariebeth

We charge £30 for a single person, or £50 for a couple. Clearly we need to up our fees as there's a mint to be made!

Seriously though, it costs us £23.50 per check so that, plus a (very) small admin fee is what the tenant is being charged. And we don't charge any additional fee to the tenant at all. And we still have people saying we're ripping them off!

neilj1984

As a tenant myself I don't mind paying something when I go to a new rental place, the LL/LA has to protect themselves. That said, from my own experience, what the OP is being charged is excessive, I've never paid more than £50 for a check for myself, or £75 when there's been two of us.

pelirocco

Plus if you dont 'pass' they keep the fee , a nice little earner .

2 of my employees have lost money this way , I don't often call anything a rip off , but in the case of these fees I make an exception