What are reasonable re letting fees

sarahevie

In my student HMO, I had the unfortunate position that at the end of August one of my tenants, sent me a text.

I'm not going to be taking up my room as I failed my exams, please return my deposit to xx address.

No acknowledgement that they would owe rent for the period, etc.

All tenants were due to move in, 1st Sept. We have since found a replacement, who has paid a deposit and rent for Sept/October, they are currently late with November's rent.

Original tenant wants their deposit back. It is protected (along with the other tenants with the dispute service).

We have been resisting giving it back to them as I think that they have added additional admin, made no attempt to find another tenant - I think that their original £300 deposit should be forfeited and that they should think themselves lucky they haven't had to pay any rent for the 12 months they signed for.

Am I barmy? Should I return the £300 and move on? What is fair in these cases and how to explain this to the tenant.

Fire_Fox

Had the student signed an AST, if so why did you accept a text as cancellation/ surrender? If the tenant had not signed an AST what does your paperwork say about pulling out/ reletting/ non refundable? Did you write to the tenant at the time advising them there would be costs or have you just been ignoring them?

You should return the deposit minus whatever it cost you to find a new tenant, it's not clear at all what your losses actually were. No idea why the new tenant being late for the rent is relevant? Are you a member of a landlord's association?

sarahevie

Yes I am a member of the RLA.

We haven't been deliberately ignoring the outgoing tenant. However, as they made no contact at all in September other than the text, we had to focus on finding a replacement tenant.

We felt it would be easier to find a replacement than try and pursue the outgoing tenant for unpaid rent. However, we have ended up with a replacement we aren't very happy with, but that's another thread.

As the scheme is an insurance backed one, it has cost to protect their deposit, and the new tenants deposit.

Ads in local papers, websites, university accommodation pages don't come free. Nor does petrol and time to carry out viewings. Plus additional paperwork in adding the new tenant to the joint and several AST.

Fire_Fox

So did you get a proper written cancellation/ surrender from the tenant before reletting? Prepare an itemised invoice and send it to the tenant and release the residue of the £300 from the deposit scheme. If your costs are more than their deposit send them the invoice plus a request for payment for the excess and claim back the £300 from the deposit scheme. Much the same as you would for any departing tenant regarding their deposit, you can't unilaterally decide to keep the entire deposit you have to justify it (which may well be easy).

*Robin*

Itemise your costs in a letter to the failed tenant, and return the balance of his/her deposit.

I would add a sympathetic comment about the unfortunate student's disappointment in not getting the grades they needed for their course. But that's just me.

tbs624

This is not an unusual scenario when letting to groups of students therefore you, as LL, need to ensure from the start that your potential Ts understand their obligations if one of them drops out.

You say the drop out student contacted you but you don't mention any communication from you to him? This is despite is being two months further down the line?

You should have written promptly to all of the Ts ( under that J&SL) and told them that they needed to find someone else to replace the drop out guy.

Costs of arranging viewings? Why not ask the other occupants to deal with those - it's what usually happens in shared houses, not least because the other Ts like to get to know who may be sharing their home

Yes, it costs you to register the deposit but on that isse :

(1) as LL you are the one who gets to choose which deposit scheme is used and there is of course the free to use DPS
(2) Either include the costs of the alternative fee-charging scheme that you have chosen in your rent calculations or make it clear to the T that you charge a separate amount to cover this
(3) remember that if you pay the fee yourself you can set the it down on your tax return as a bonafide expense.

What does your tenancy agreement say about the deposit and what it is intended to cover?

You mentioned twice the difficulties you are having with the new replacement T but that bit is irrelevant to the issue with the original T - you have dealt with finding a replacement so perhaps your referencing is at fault. Did you obtain a guarantor for each student T, with the agreement executed as a deed?

You say that the contract is under J&SL so the minute the rent is late you write to the T whose has not coughed and you copy in the others because ultimately they could each be held responsible to making up the shortfall. It may simply be that this particular T's SLC payments have been delayed and unfortunately young Ts are often not mature enough to ring and let the LL know in advance that they are having difficulties so why don't you check why the T is late with their payment?

As you mention membership of the RLA, you may want to consider attending some of their LL training courses

Are you fully up to date with your obligations as a LL of an HMO?