Letting agents - is this common practice?

Joarine

We are looking into moving into a larger property (renting). We viewed a house last Saturday. At the time of the viewing the letting agent informed us that someone had viewed the house prior to us and was putting through an application. She said we could still view the house and put in an application as well and both applications would be forwarded to the landlord to choose from. The property was priced at £725 PCM.

I rang the letting agent yesterday to find out if there had been any progress and they said that due to how quickly they had managed to get interest the landlord would now like £750 PCM for the house. The letting agent also told us at that point that originally the landlord had wanted £850 PCM (the house is not worth that looking at other properties in that area / price range). My husband and I declined and we thought this was poor practice from the letting agents . Is this common?

Apologies for long winded post x

Reue

Not very comon in rented properties as far as I was aware. Typically its not worth the landlord's time messing around for an extra £25pm, especially if this leaves the property empty for an amount of time.

Carl31

If that is true, and i suspect its the agent trying to make a quick buck, then would you really want a LL that behaves that way? They would be stinging you left right and centre for money

Joarine

Thank you for your replies. Carl those were my thoughts. I am not one for playing games like that so we have passed and are still looking. Hopefully something will come up:-)

N1AK

Joarine wrote: »

I rang the letting agent yesterday to find out if there had been any progress and they said that due to how quickly they had managed to get interest the landlord would now like £750 PCM for the house. The letting agent also told us at that point that originally the landlord had wanted £850 PCM (the house is not worth that looking at other properties in that area / price range). My husband and I declined and we thought this was poor practice from the letting agents . Is this common?

Apologies for long winded post x

If you really want the place and are willing to pay the extra £25 it may be worth paying it; doing yourself out of a place you like to make a point may not be worth it.

On the other hand if you aren't desperate for the place then tell the LA that you're now looking at some other places and if the LL changes his mind and decides he'd take £725 again then they are welcome to let you know.

I don't think it's common but whenever money and sales people are involved there is always a motivation to get a little more if they can.

Joarine

N1AK - no we are not that desperate to move and that's exactly what we said to the agent in that our application is still valid for the £725.

Again thank you all for your replies, I was (naively?) expecting things to be plain sailing.

ognum

I guess just as tenants sometimes make offers on a rented property the agent has decided they have enough interest to up the price.

This is not something I have ever done, nor would I do it as I believe it starts the tenant landlord relationship on the wrong foot.

I do however know of a relative renting in London who was told they had not got a property and offered £50 a month more and suddenly it became theirs!

if you really want it offer £10 more but be aware that this will probably be a landlord who will up the rent every six months!

[Deleted User]

Where I live, rental properties are in high demand, and certainly prospective tenants may offer higher rents than asked for to get a property. Its not unheard of. I would imagine the landlord or letting agency decided to see what rent the property could go for if there were two eager tenants ready to sign for it. But yes, I'd worry about the attitude of the landlord / LA if this happened to me.

twink22

Yes our letting agent was like that, we offered a rent of £1150 per month on a house to sign an 18 month contract, agent phoned the next day saying someone else had offered £1250 per month and would sign for the same, I said well go with them then as its clearly a better deal, agent called back an hour later and said the landlord prefers you to the other prospective tenant (we never met the landlord) and so will accept your offer.

My opinion is there was never any other tenant they just expected us to say ok we'll match/increase our offer, when we didn't they had to back track and take what we had offered originally.

Habitari

In my opinion no reputable agent should entertain bidding wars or even allow this to happen. An agent should remain fair and impartial at all times.

In circumstances where we may carry out an 'open day' or 'block viewing' we will accept more than one holding deposit on the basis that everyone is aware the decision will fall to the Landlord and not ourselves as the 'Agent'.

However normal practice for most agents should be that once a holding deposit is taken the property is taken off the market until references have been obtained for all tenants.

I would always advise applicants to stand their ground in these situations as more than likely the 'someone else' is made up.