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Outrageous admin fees! Help needed!

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Comments

  • Angeleek
    Angeleek Posts: 6 Forumite
    tbs624 wrote: »
    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.


    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

    When I move I am going to write a letter to the local MP about this experience, and I know a few other people in Basingstoke this sort of thing has happened to, so I'll see if they'll do the same. It's sad that that is the only avenue I can take, but if it gets the voices heard then so be it. I do agree though, because there has been a slump in property sales, they probably are trying to make up the money but that's not an excuse to try and grab the money off landlords and tenants!

    Anyway, TL;DR, I will write to the local MP about this and see where it goes, hopefully it'll go somewhere!
    Total bargain hunter :D
  • DizzyDasher
    DizzyDasher Posts: 119 Forumite
    Our last agent tried to charge us £500+. We told them we weren't going to pay more than £150 (what our previous agent charged) and they accepted that - but then this was about 3 years ago and the market was pretty dead, so we felt we could take the risk that they gave the flat to somebody else. It's obviously easier said than done to negotiate like this if you feel your options are limited and they have other tenants queuing up... But there's no harm in getting some comparators from other agencies and having a go.

    The reference check excuse is bunkum: that's about £20 per person if they do a normal check, maximum £50 per person for a more thorough check (Have a look at the HomeLet website: the only more expensive check than that effectively includes insurance against you not paying rent). (I've never understood why this gets charged to the tenant anyway, given it's for the landlord's benefit - but in the end I guess letting agencies will charge both landlords and tenants whatever they think they can get away with).
  • Our last agent tried to charge us £500+. We told them we weren't going to pay more than £150 (what our previous agent charged) and they accepted that - but then this was about 3 years ago and the market was pretty dead, so we felt we could take the risk that they gave the flat to somebody else. It's obviously easier said than done to negotiate like this if you feel your options are limited and they have other tenants queuing up... But there's no harm in getting some comparators from other agencies and having a go.

    The reference check excuse is bunkum: that's about £20 per person if they do a normal check, maximum £50 per person for a more thorough check (Have a look at the HomeLet website: the only more expensive check than that effectively includes insurance against you not paying rent). (I've never understood why this gets charged to the tenant anyway, given it's for the landlord's benefit - but in the end I guess letting agencies will charge both landlords and tenants whatever they think they can get away with).

    we're in the process of finding somewhere suitable for our daughter to live in London. I have seen how these letting agents operate from both ends as I'm a landlord as well. I use my experience as a landlord to bring down the tenant fees which I think are appalling in central London but this is because their's an abundance of tenants.

    What I've just done is made an offer to the letting agent that we'll sign for a year rather than the standard six months if they cut their fees in half (from £500.00 - £250.00)

    The more often a property becomes vacant the more the letting agent makes in relet fees and 'admin' fees so the more unscrupulous ones don't pass on my offer. I now make it clear that I'll also make the offer in writing direct to the landlord and get his address for £4.00 from the land registry.

    At least this way if the letting agent doesn't pass on the offer the landlord will know about it.

    It's been about five years since I used a letting agent to rent out one of my properties and if you're willing to manage them yourself their is no need. there are heaps of resources on the internet where you can attract tenants gumtree is pretty good for London and the larger cities and quite cheap although you need to keep bumping up your ad.

    Outside of London I've used Upad who charge around £100.00 and more recently Home Abode who charge the grand total of nowt - both of them put you on rightmove, zoopla etc so it's a landlords market at the moment!:j
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