Rent in Scotland? Claim back unlawful upfront fees by letting agents.

gamma

Thought you might be interested in the campaign by Shelter Scotland.

If you've been charged any admin / credit check / holding fees by your letting agent or landlord you can claim them back as they're unlawful in Scotland.

There's a toolkit which generates all the letters you need to get the fees back and guidance if you need to take the agent to the small claims court.

I've been charged £235 by my letting agent and I'm in the process of reclaiming this using the letters on the site.

Link - http://www.reclaimyourfees.com

[Deleted User]

currently going through the process, one letter down, second in process.

Agent claiming that they can charge credit check fees as I agreed to it.

lets see, will keep you informed

Ulfar

Scotland is looking better and better as a place to live.

If only we could have this in England.

gamma

Big piece in the Metro about this today as well...

Let us know how you get on Flexiblefish!

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

I think this is an excellent campaign.

Lettings agents will simply increase the fees they charge to landlords, and landlords will increase the rents to cover it.

Either way the tenants will pay.

Not only that, but it has provided impetus for landlords and lettings agents to organise around the current Scottish Parliament consultation on fees and try to get the law clarified to allow reasonable administrative and credit check fees.

Well done Shelter.

Ulfar

It at least stops up front fees which are only escalating. The fees often are in no way representative of the true costs. Does it really cost £50.00 to print a new contract and get people to sign, how about referencing fees do they really cost £200 or more.

The answer in both cases is no it doesn't, it is pretty much all profit for letting agents. Not only is the tenant getting stung by these but so is the land lord.

Paying to have the chance at a rental is a farce. It is also a practice that has been become normal due to letting agents.

Would it increase rents, possibly but then again there is plenty of downward pressure on rents at the moment anyway.

Make it illegal and at the same time regulate letting agents.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Ulfar wrote: »

Does it really cost £50.00 to print a new contract and get people to sign, how about referencing fees do they really cost £200 or more. The answer in both cases is no it doesn't, it is pretty much all profit for letting agents.

It's an old rule of thumb in business that an employee should generate at least three times the money for the business than they cost it. A third to pay their salary, a third towards the business overheads, and another third to pay for taxes and profit.

Assuming it takes a few hours work to prepare the documentation and credit checks, check their references, and meet the tenants to get signatures, then a couple of hundred quid for all of that sounds about right to me.

The commission the landlord pays in addition to that will also have to cover the costs of creating schedules and particulars, booking advertising, listing properties on Rightmove, conducting viewings, etc, for many houses for every one let they actually complete.

You may feel that a couple of hundred quid is excessive, but as someone with decades of experience running businesses, I can tell you it will barely scratch the sides of the costs of running a business these days.

Paying to have the chance at a rental is a farce. It is also a practice that has been become normal due to letting agents.

Its a sad fact of the housing shortage that for every rental these days, there are normally multiple applicants.

Somebody has to pay to check the references and credit of these applicants.

Who do you suggest should pay it if not the applicants?

If the letting agent pays it, then they must increase their fees to compensate. If the landlord pays it they must increase the rent to compensate. In any business, if your costs increase you must increase your prices to compensate...

Why should the lettings business be any different?

Would it increase rents, possibly but then again there is plenty of downward pressure on rents at the moment anyway.

Rents have soared to new record highs lately.

There is nothing but upwards pressure on rents these days thanks to the mortgage famine and housing shortage, and you want to add more upwards pressure?

Make it illegal and at the same time regulate letting agents.

Then rents will rise more.

mynameisclare

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

I think this is an excellent campaign.

Lettings agents will simply increase the fees they charge to landlords, and landlords will increase the rents to cover it.

At least that would be transparent and easy to compare between properties, unlike the current mess.

Ulfar

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

It's an old rule of thumb in business that an employee should generate at least three times the money for the business than they cost it. A third to pay their salary, a third towards the business overheads, and another third to pay for taxes and profit.

Assuming it takes a few hours work to prepare the documentation and credit checks, check their references, and meet the tenants to get signatures, then a couple of hundred quid for all of that sounds about right to me.

The commission the landlord pays in addition to that will also have to cover the costs of creating schedules and particulars, booking advertising, listing properties on Rightmove, conducting viewings, etc, for many houses for every one let they actually complete.

The letting agent should make their money from their client the Landlord not the tenant. Their ongoing profit would be from the commission on the rent paid each month.

I have in the past asked the company doing a credit check for a rental how much they were charging the letting agent answer £30.00, so yes £200.00 is excessive.

Also renewing a contract consists of printing it off and posting it, not a £50.00 charge by any stretch of the imagination.

The costs in now way add up to what letting agents are charging. It is this rip off excessiveness that means legislation is needed.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Its a sad fact of the housing shortage that for every rental these days, there are normally multiple applicants.

Somebody has to pay to check the references and credit of these applicants.

Who do you suggest should pay it if not the applicants?

The landlord he is after all the letting agents client and the one wanting to rent his property. If he had too then maybe some landlords would exert pressure on letting agents to moderate their practices.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

If the letting agent pays it, then they must increase their fees to compensate. If the landlord pays it they must increase the rent to compensate. In any business, if your costs increase you must increase your prices to compensate...

Why should the lettings business be any different?

I have no problem with landlords putting it on the rent, at least this would enable an easy and fair way to compare multiple properties and the costs involved without any hidden nasty surprises. It would also remove any incentives from some letting agents to take multiple reservation fees for one property from multiple tenants.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Rents have soared to new record highs lately.

There is nothing but upwards pressure on rents these days thanks to the mortgage famine and housing shortage, and you want to add more upwards pressure?

Then rents will rise more.

Sorry did I dream the changes to housing benefit and the prices being set at the 30th percentile, the fact single people now only get the shared room rate until they are 35. How about the incoming cap on housing benefit.

How about that house prices are coming down making purchasing more viable.

Also I don't know where you are but there are plenty of properties available for rent where I live and rents are reducing.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Ulfar wrote: »

Sorry did I dream the changes to housing benefit and the prices being set at the 30th percentile, the fact single people now only get the shared room rate until they are 35. How about the incoming cap on housing benefit.

No, you didn't dream it.

But you were dreaming if you thought it would bring rents down.

Rents have risen to new record highs regardless of the changes starting over a year ago, because 75%+ of private rentals do not receive any housing benefits at all, and the majority of those that do only receive a small top up.

With even the government admitting the changes will only result in an average of £11 per week to tenants, it was always inevitable that most tenants would simply divert money from other spend to the rent.

How about that house prices are coming down making purchasing more viable.

Eh?

Most potential buyers can't get a mortgage thanks to the banks rationing mortgages, so prices are of no relevance.

But FYI, prices are slightly rising year on year on Land Registry, Acadametrics and the ONS indices, and slightly falling year on year on Halifax and Nationwide. At worst you could claim they're stable, not falling.

Also I don't know where you are but there are plenty of properties available for rent where I live and rents are reducing.

Well my neighbour rents his house while he's overseas, and hasn't had a void of more than 3 days in the last 2 years. He's put the rent up by £100 a month in that time as well.

But here's what rents are doing nationally.....

tbs624

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

But here's what rents are doing nationally.....

As you didn't give the source let's now mention that these figs come from the LSL BTL index report (LSL owns Reeds Rains and Your Move)

The index says in its blurb:

"The index is based on analysis of approximately 18,000 properties across England and Wales. Rental values refer to the actual values achieved for each property when let. Yield figures are unadjusted, and do not take account of void periods or arrears. Annual returns are based on annual rental property price inflation and void‐adjusted yield at the point of purchase. These figures are subject to revision as more data becomes available." ( My bolding)

Source

Presumably those 18000 properties are just those let via Reeds Rains/ Your Move. Some may view it as folly to extrapolate these figures to try to give a definitive "here's what rents are doing nationally"