Ludlow Thompson - Unusually high letting fees

Saffy345

Hello all.

I just want to check with you guys about these fees...

My partner and I have found a flat that we would like to rent for £1,100 per month.

Other estate agents we have viewed property with in the past fortnight only charge £75 each for referencing, so £150 altogether. There was another that charged a bit over at £90 each, so £180 altogether.

The property we are interested in and have put an offer in for comes with Ludlow Thompson fees of £457!

They have explained that this is for referencing, but when we explained the comparable rates of other agents, they sort of shrugged their shoulders and said 'that's just how we do it here'.

We will find a way to pay it if needs be, but it a huge dent out of our moving budget. We were expecting to pay the usual rates of about £200-250.

Any advise or ways around this?
There is apparently a way you can write afterwards and try to get the fees returned as they are apparently unlawful according to the housing organisation shelter.

Many thanks for your thoughts and advice.

All the best,
Saffy

k0sh

You pay the fees or you do not pay the fees. It is your choice.
You cannot then ask for the fees back.

Some agents where we are will charge 13 days worth of rent as their admin fee.

braun_2

They are having a laugh!

Referencing costs about £25 per person. Thats one hell of a mark up for printer ink and paper to print out the tenancy agreement.

You could write to the LA and ask for a cheeky discount, they can only say no.

Charshy

I got charged £300 in referencing fees for my last rented property. I hated it, but otherwise I wouldn't have got it. The going rate in my area for all the agents is approximately £150 in fees.

I wish them all a painful death.

_Andy_

"They have explained that this is for referencing, but when we explained the comparable rates of other agents, they sort of shrugged their shoulders and said 'that's just how we do it here'."

Using your logic then, any company offering a product or service should always charge the same amount?

benjus

You're lucky you're not looking to rent in France - it seems normal over there for an agency to charge around 2-4 weeks' rent as their fee.

Try looking at it as part of the total cost of the rent over the length of the tenancy agreement (or longer, as long as they won't charge you a fortune to renew). If the rent is keenly priced, paying out a bit more at the start may actually be worth it...

FredD

I've just rented a property from Ludlow Thompson and it has been the most stressful experience ever.

They are only interested in your money and nothing more, customer service, what customer service there isn’t any!
Initially everything was relatedly fine, until I signed the tenancy agreement and checked the property again. Only to find repairs needed doing, i.e. disconnected smoke alarm, window with no handle so couldn’t close it. Then when I went to use the washing machine only to find it doesn’t work. This was almost 6 weeks ago. It took them 4 weeks to fix the smoke alarm and window handle (they didn’t sort it I had to!), the washing machine is finally being replaced next week.
Paying fees, deposit and rent in advance was as nightmare. Their charges are through the roof, I had to pay £360 for referencing (this was at a knocked down price – it would have been over £500!) and as I was on my own they wanted a further £1,855 from me. I did not make it a secret to them that I would need to get a house mate to meet the rent, and was told there would not be any costs for this, i.e. referencing. I got hit today with an additional £360 to do referencing as I found a housemate. Now they are saying that they said it was no additional costs to me, but to the new house mate – this is incorrect as I made a point of asking about additional costs before I signed the tenancy agreement.
Ludlow Thompson’s property management centre staff are the rudest and most arrogant people I’ve ever come across and are quite bullish. This whole experience has been the most stressful and non-productive experience I have ever experience.
Has anyone had this kind of experience with Ludlow Thompson and can make any recommendations of how to handle it, as well as giving me insight into what the outcome for you was?
Thanks
FredD

iwanna

My partner let his property through Ludlow Thompson a year or so ago and got completely shafted by them .... basically the tenants left after 2 months, Ludlow Thompson made sure they pocketed about £3k in supposed fees yet my partner only got about £50 for the pleasure of some idiots wrecking his property! Absolute horrible company for both tenants and landlords it seems!

jamie11

FredD wrote: »

I've just rented a property from Ludlow Thompson and it has been the most stressful experience ever.

They are only interested in your money and nothing more, customer service, what customer service there isn’t any!
Initially everything was relatedly fine, until I signed the tenancy agreement and checked the property again. Only to find repairs needed doing, i.e. disconnected smoke alarm, window with no handle so couldn’t close it. Then when I went to use the washing machine only to find it doesn’t work. This was almost 6 weeks ago. It took them 4 weeks to fix the smoke alarm and window handle (they didn’t sort it I had to!), the washing machine is finally being replaced next week.
Paying fees, deposit and rent in advance was as nightmare. Their charges are through the roof, I had to pay £360 for referencing (this was at a knocked down price – it would have been over £500!) and as I was on my own they wanted a further £1,855 from me. I did not make it a secret to them that I would need to get a house mate to meet the rent, and was told there would not be any costs for this, i.e. referencing. I got hit today with an additional £360 to do referencing as I found a housemate. Now they are saying that they said it was no additional costs to me, but to the new house mate – this is incorrect as I made a point of asking about additional costs before I signed the tenancy agreement.
Ludlow Thompson’s property management centre staff are the rudest and most arrogant people I’ve ever come across and are quite bullish. This whole experience has been the most stressful and non-productive experience I have ever experience.
Has anyone had this kind of experience with Ludlow Thompson and can make any recommendations of how to handle it, as well as giving me insight into what the outcome for you was?
Thanks
FredD

Hang on FredD.............This housemate? Is it someone that you have rented a room to? If so, that makes him your lodger..........and sod all to do with the agency.

If I'm right then politely decline their request for more money and advise your lodger to do the same. (you can forget the 'politely' bit if you want).

[Deleted User]

When I was looking for a house to rent as you have said, most agencies charged a £125 admin fee but I saw one house where the agency charged £550. The house was nice, but I looked at them and walked away. The admin fee was almost as much as the monthly rental. I got much the same response from them as you did.