Advice on rental fees needed

ryandotdee

Hi Guys, first post so be gentle

I am having to move out of my current flat due to my housemate moving in with his GF, so I have sorted out a new flat.

Its pretty expensive, but due to a short amount of time, and other factors I have decided to go for it. I have already paid a holding deposit, and the fees to the agent to do my referencing.

I received the tenancy agreement from the landlord today, and as well as the remaining deposit and first months rent listed as owing, they are stating that I have to pay £30 to secure my deposit?

Now, I know £30 is not a massive amount of cash, but it is already costing me about 2k to move, so I need to cut all un needed expenses down where I can. I have never had to pay this before, and have rented a few places since 2007, so should I dispute this?

Many thanks for any responses

Ryan

BitterAndTwisted

The two insurance-based deposit-protection schemes (TDS and MyDeposits) make a charge for registration and that is being passed onto you. You can dispute it if you like but you could risk the offer being withdrawn. After having paid so much already in holding-fees and referencing I don't think I'd be prepared to lose it all for the sake of thirty quid.

Callie22

Depends how brave you are but I have challenged this. I pointed out to the agent that I had already paid x amount in ambiguous 'admin' fees and that regardless of whether I paid or not, they still had a legal obligation to protect my deposit within the prescribed time, so I might as well not pay and save myself £50 ... or they could not protect it and I could go to court and claim 3x the deposit - win/win for me either way. I also pointed out that they were using the 'free' scheme (DPS?) so I asked them what I was paying for, and why these costs weren't part of the 'admin' fee. They agreed to drop the fee but they weren't very happy ... so you probably do need to be fairly confident that they won't suddenly find some reason to suddenly not be able to rent to you.

Fire_Fox

Welcome! Did you ask about all the fees and were not informed of this beforehand? If so query it.

princeofpounds

It's open to negotiation like anything else.

You don't have to pay it and the landlord will still have to protect it by law. But your landlord doesn't have to give you the tenancy.

I would push back strong on this personally. I regard it as fundamentally cheeky.