Letting agent hidden fees in contract after the offer was accepted

rosy_hope

Hi, I am about to move into a new flat in London and have had yet another frustrating encounter with letting agents. I paid a holding deposit to the agents, knowing that their admin fee was pretty high - £345, which including references but not VAT - and assumed that would be all the fees. When I received a copy of the lease however there was also £120 check-out fee and £190 cleaning fees at the end of the tenancy. When I complained that these fees were not transparent when I made the offer on the flat the agent said that it was their "property management" department that handled the contract so they did not know directly about these fees, and I was made known of them at "the earliest opportunity" which is when I received the contract.

Is there anything illegal about this? I feel like the fees in the contract are entirely arbitrary and they could have put any amount down really, as they did not tell me about them in advance.

Any advice really appreciated!

rosy_hope

Posting a reply to my own request, in case anyone else requires this information. If the agent is a registered member of The Property Ombudsman then section 6g of the Code of Practice for Residential Letting Agents states:

6g Prior to an applicant’s offer being formally accepted, you must set out in written form and must actively flag any significant tenancy pre-conditions and terms for the letting, including the circumstances in which the applicant may have any potential financial liability for fees, charges or penalties relevant to:
...
any ongoing or future liability for fees or charges payable to you for the applicant to extend, renew or terminate the proposed tenancy including inventory check-out costs.

(you can get this document from their website, but I'm not allowed to post a link as a new user)

I presented this to my agent but they say that it was the landlord's decision to have the check-out and cleaning fees and they were not aware of these when I made the offer, so it doesn't seem like I can do anything about it.

Titanium

If a new charge has been introduced AFTER you have signed a legally binding contract, and this charge has not been mentioned in it, you can dispute it as they may be in breach of the contract.
Try speaking to the agents and express your unhappiness. If they're being dodgy, chances are they will back off. General rule is if you don't ask, you won't get!

rosy_hope

I haven't signed the contract yet. These fees are stated in the contract but I only received this 3 weeks after I made the offer, and after I had paid £1000 holding deposit for the property, which I will lose if I don't go ahead with the contract.

embob74

rosy_hope it is really good of you to update with the info you have found.
When you received the copy of the lease had you already signed it or was it for you to sign?

mart.vader

rosy_hope wrote: »

I haven't signed the contract yet. These fees are stated in the contract but I only received this 3 weeks after I made the offer, and after I had paid £1000 holding deposit for the property, which I will lose if I don't go ahead with the contract.

So, the LL's agents didn't know what the LL required ?, even though the agent's "property management" department handled the contract and, they are acting contrary to the rules of their own trade association ?

£345 for "admin" ? It's just more profit for the LA - the check out and cleaning fee are the same. I think I read that LA's can get references done for about £20.

In my experience, the Property Ombudsman will not give a toss, (but you might have better luck)

As to giving them £1,000 deposit before they made the overall costs clear - it's clearly sharp practice and an Unfair Term in a contract, but you'll find that no-one, not the Ombudsman, nor the Office of Fair Trading will be prepared to take your side.

bebewoo

It's becoming more common for letting agents to charge check-out fees, as I found out too when renting with W********s, they hide it in the tenancy agreement then spring it on you when leaving.
Nobody really cares about what letting agents do, OFT and Ombudsmen do nothing, as Mart says above.
Just make sure that when you leave the place is filthy enough to cost them more than £190 to clean.

rpc

mart.vader wrote: »

As to giving them £1,000 deposit before they made the overall costs clear - it's clearly sharp practice and an Unfair Term in a contract, but you'll find that no-one, not the Ombudsman, nor the Office of Fair Trading will be prepared to take your side.

I would expect a small claims court to side with OP, if he took court action to reclaim his deposit. OP paid a deposit based on a certain set of fees. The LL has now changed the agreement by adding extra fees so OP should be free to withdraw without penalty.

OP has a choice - accept the extra fees or withdraw and try to get the holding deposit back. Sadly, charging extortionate fees is perfectly acceptable in England and Wales. Applying them unfairly is not, however.

edit: I also think that a mandatory cleaning fee wouldn't stand up to arbitration (or court). It's a risk though.

mart.vader

You might be right, however, I am six years into a legal dispute that started in the small claims court, and has cost me about £5K so far, and the court are bending over backwards to be unfair to me.