Outrageous admin fees! Help needed!

babe-ruth

Are there no private landlords advertising in the area who don't charge fees?

gRoberts

My previous experiences with LA's are half a months rent + VAT for fee's.

Shooking!!

Naf

Angeleek wrote: »

We have unfortunately had no choice but to pay this

Of course you have a choice:

Angeleek wrote: »

we really want the property

Is the real story, of course.

LAs know that people are going to keep paying up, because people do keep paying. Until people get smarter it'll keep happening. More LLs need to realise that they can advertise their property for free in places that plenty of good tenants do look, and that they can still do credit and reference checks themselves with minimal effort on their part, and for much lower fees that a prospective tenant will have no problems paying.
As with so many things, though, people need to stop bending over and allowing themselves to be screwed.

fridaypassion

Scandalous. As a LL we dont charge any fees for referencing. The credit check is £13 and it takes about 1/2 an hour to do the other checks. We are also probably more thorough than 99% of LA's.

The best bit is they are probably charging the LL a similar amount so £1000 for 1/2 an hours work!

sandsni

When we decided to go through a LA (as LLs) I had no idea the agents charged Ts such high fees (especially since the LL already pays high fees for the service). I'll accept that charging SOME fees maybe prevents Ts applying unless they're really serious about the place, but having read some of the threads on this site I'm only now beginning to realise just how extortionate some of the fees are.

whalster

Local councils have lists of private landlords but as a Landlord I advertise with Upad and Private landlord directory.com now if I were looking I would look on rightmove and zoopla for the adverts listed by the above , I think its under all properties listed by this agent or something like that and then you can bet the adverts there are all from private landlords as that is what they cater for , still be carefull on the fees though the good thing about private landlord directory is that when you register and upload your own properties it won't let you do that without a full list of the fees involved , this helps me as I don't get people ringing up asking the simple stuff how much this how much that , its there for them to see if they like the property like the price ring up if not dont, and they go on the portals too .

sandsni

I just had a brainwave. What if potential tenants paid Homelet (or another similar company) to do full reference checks on themselves, then presented the report to LA's or LL's (in the same way you would produce your CV at a job interview)? Then all the LA or LL would have to do is verify the applicant's I.D to make sure it tallied with the Homelet report. If they wanted to check the references themselves they could do so AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE. Potential employers don't charge applicants to check their references or CVs, so it seems like a reasonable idea to me. The applicant would only have to pay once as the same reference check would be valid for all rental applications (within a reasonable time period of course).

Do you think I'm on to something or is it a daft idea?

Matt1977

Totally agree about the application fees for private renting. They are a fairly meaningless charge as sometimes you see the same letting agents advertising other homes for rent with 'half price application fees' or no fees at all.

Letting Agents are getting their 15% (or so) of the rent anyway so it is cheeky to charge tenants as well? After all, it is the tenants who generate the income for the other parties.

Those fees go towards paying for those 'fashionable' Mini Coopers and Fiat 500s with the letting agent's branding on the sides.

tbs624

sandsni wrote: »

When we decided to go through a LA (as LLs) I had no idea the agents charged Ts such high fees (especially since the LL already pays high fees for the service). I'll accept that charging SOME fees maybe prevents Ts applying unless they're really serious about the place, but having read some of the threads on this site I'm only now beginning to realise just how extortionate some of the fees are.

Providing an LA with much personal data plus the actual costs of a third party check shows that most Ts are serious applicants IMO.

The racking up of these spurious fees to Ts seems to have direct correlation with the down turn in the housing market- EAs/LAs looking to make up the shortfall in their sales commissions?

Shelter Scotland are pushing the issue( in Scotland such fees are already supposed to be illegal yet Ts are still charged) and Shelter Cymru is raising the issue in Wales.

See Shelter Cymru and Shelter Scotland

Ts (and LLs) who are unhappy with the way LAs operate, and the lack of transparency/regulation , should write to their MP and to the Housing Minister, giving their personal experience of the huge additional costs that can face Ts who need/want to move home

john_white

fridaypassion wrote: »

Scandalous. As a LL we dont charge any fees for referencing. The credit check is £13 and it takes about 1/2 an hour to do the other checks. We are also probably more thorough than 99% of LA's.

The best bit is they are probably charging the LL a similar amount so £1000 for 1/2 an hours work!

Of course they have no other costs, and every viewing results in a let and then no further contact until renewal?