Crazy letting agent admin & 'holding' fees are now the norm?

allthingsmustpass

Hi

I've been renting for years, and moving quite frequently for work. I'm moving once more, and have noticed radical changes in letting agents holding 'fee' and admin fees lately.

It used to be that you'd do a viewing and pay something like £100 to reserve a property, sometimes this was refunded out of the first months rent sometimes not. And you'd pay maybe 150 for the reference checks. So in the region of £250 to take the property off of the rental market and have your credit checks made. Then on moving in your first months rent + deposit would be payable after the tenancy agreement was signed.

That was how it was for years.

Now Im doing it again and finding admin fees of around £300+VAT, and they expect you to pay huge sums up front to 'hold' the property (take off the market), which they claim will be deducted from the first months rent.

I've been quoted holding fees of half a months rent, a whole months rent, and 2 months rent! These are not Deposit Protection Scheme protected, there is no contract in place at this point, they seriously expect people to just hand over hundreds of pounds with what looks like no chance to get anything back if your checks don't work out for whatever reason. They claim they give it back but with no protection or contract in place I simply don't trust them.

This is all in the south west, dorset, somerset, this is not central london.

These fees are seriously putting me off of properties that I would otherwise be interested in. What's happened? It never used to be like this. Is anyone else finding this too?

Landlords, look into what your prospective tenants are expected to do, and wonder no more why your property will not rent out.

For the first time I will be negotiating rental prices down HARD now, to make up for these fees and increased risk.

nick_

I've been renting for about 5 years now (maybe longer, i don't care to remember!!) and have noticed the same thing. All in, you're looking at paying over £1,000 (fees/deposit etc) plus first months rent on move in, which is very restrictive, especially as it can take a few weeks to get your deposit from the previous place back.

I just think it's crazy when you're paying admin fee's, contract fee's and reference fee's. It seems the higher up the luxury scale you go, the more expensive these become as well. Don't even get me started on contract fee's when you're extending your lease.

BitterAndTwisted

In letting it's a seller's market at the moment as demand outstrips supply. Only a very bad businessperson would not want to capitalise on that situation, especially as agents aren't making a bundle on sales right now.

The only solution is to get what their charges are in writing and go through an agent with a more sensible attitude or rent direct from a landlord.

whalster

if your looking in north or west yorkshire I'll only charge you £100 holding fee ! I did the same on 2 last week and they don't want to move in while back end of june and I only charge £20 credit check , there are landlords up and down the land the same , just don't use an agent , this site has been built it seems on the persuit of thrifty , as my old granny used to say" I don't need a watch I have a tongue"
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allthingsmustpass

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

In letting it's a seller's market at the moment as demand outstrips supply. Only a very bad businessperson would not want to capitalise on that situation, especially as agents aren't making a bundle on sales right now.

Well 2 landlords so far have lost a good tenant through these demands, and I see the properties I would have taken had it not been for this madness are still on the market.

Letting and estate agents in my experience ARE bad at business, they've had a housing bubble to ride up until 2008 and now they're finding out they know jack after all!

Plenty are going bust, and good riddance. They're preying on the vulnerable with this.

What it has meant for me is that I am checking the agent as well as the property when I never used to, they were all much the same with fairly low fees until recently, and I will not pay the asking price on the rent. I used to, but not now.