£150 agents credit check

cutesee

hi was wondering if anyone, while trying to rent a house found that they would be charged 150 quid for credit check fees? i've never had 2 pay this before. Is there anyway to get around it?any help would be great as i dont want to waste money on nothing.

pickles110564

Can you give me a bit more info, company they are using?
I did not realize that I could make another £150 when taking new tenant's in thanx

RHemmings

You can try telling them that their credit check fees are too expensive and you just won't pay that much. I've done that for contract renewals, and it worked. The EAs want lots of money, yes. But they'd much prefer a smaller amount of money than none at all.

rosysparkle

Most lettings agents won't negotiate on the administration fee to reserve the property and take up references.

The level and structure of fees vary - you might find an agent which charges a low initial admin fee, only to find them loading charges on at every opportunity later on.

The agency for which I work charges an admin fee for someone to apply for the property, and then there are no further admin fees at all, no sign up fees, no renewal fees, no check in or check out fees. So you might want to look at the whole of the charging structure.

Letsure's comprehensive referencing service (which many agents will be using) is not the same as a £2 credit check.

RHemmings

rosysparkle wrote: »

Most lettings agents won't negotiate on the administration fee to reserve the property and take up references.

The level and structure of fees vary - you might find an agent which charges a low initial admin fee, only to find them loading charges on at every opportunity later on.

The agency for which I work charges an admin fee for someone to apply for the property, and then there are no further admin fees at all, no sign up fees, no renewal fees, no check in or check out fees. So you might want to look at the whole of the charging structure.

Letsure's comprehensive referencing service (which many agents will be using) is not the same as a £2 credit check.

I find it difficult to believe that agents wouldn't negotiate on fees if they had a massive markup, and they find that they are losing business because of it.

How much does letsure charge the agent? I've heard figures of £25 bandied around.

rosysparkle

It varies, depends on the agent and the amount of business they put through. Most agents won't say as it's commercially sensitive information.

We won't negotiate on tenant fees, and we don't seem to be losing business. Most people do understand that LA staff have to be paid for their time, and processing an application is quite time consuming. We don't have any further fees after the initial admin which means that taken as a whole, our fees are among the cheapest in the area.

RHemmings

rosysparkle wrote: »

It varies, depends on the agent and the amount of business they put through. Most agents won't say as it's commercially sensitive information.

We won't negotiate on tenant fees, and we don't seem to be losing business. Most people do understand that LA staff have to be paid for their time, and processing an application is quite time consuming. We don't have any further fees after the initial admin which means that taken as a whole, our fees are among the cheapest in the area.

If your fees were the cheapest in your area, then I wouldn't expect you to be losing business due to fees. And I personally would take note of no continuing fees when evaluating costs. But I have been quoted £300 when others were asking £100. That's enough for me to turn down a property from the former unless it was a very good deal. Though, in any case, I'd progress as far as meeting the LL and letting them know (if I am) that I'm interested in the property, but find the fee unacceptable.

And particularly for renewals, I understand that LA staff have to be paid for their time, but not £100 for minutes of work.

Since you are anonymous on this forum, can you describe how much you pay for credit checks, and how much you charge the potential tenants?

rosysparkle

No, because some people on the forum do know my name and where I work, and believe it or not, I absolutely love my job and don't want to lose it.

It takes lots of minutes to process an application from initial enquiry to sign up, but I do understand that many people have made their minds up that all LAs and EAs are by definition evil moneygrabbers (we don't do residential sales, though).

roses

When I was looking to rent last year, nearly every single agent I went to told me the tenants fee was 1/3 of 1 months rent plus vat.

Shambler

I have paid anything from £75 up to £165 for initial admin/credit check fees.

The last time we applied and gave them a cheque for the credit reference and another on for the deposit, they said credit check takes about 10 days.

Well, it is a good job the credit check was OK because they cashed the deposit cheque immediately :eek:

RHemmings

rosysparkle wrote: »

It takes lots of minutes to process an application from initial enquiry to sign up, but I do understand that many people have made their minds up that all LAs and EAs are by definition evil moneygrabbers (we don't do residential sales, though).

But if you're charging a fee for the credit check ... surely it should be for the credit check. If you charge a large sum for the credit check due to other costs, then that doesn't quite seem right. If there are costs in processing an application, then why isn't there an application fee, priced separately from the credit check?

The following article goes into fees in general, but also mentions fees for credit checks. It also says

http://money.guardian.co.uk/renting/story/0,,1479981,00.html

The National Landlords Association says a number of its members are also disgruntled about high charges.

'We have had quite a number of calls from landlords complaining about fees charged by agents,' says a spokesperson. 'As far as I am aware, if these charges were challenged in court they would be struck down. But unless this happens or unless agencies are regulated this practice will continue.'

Going back to the original discussion concerning negotiation:

'Tenants need to educate themselves upfront about fees,' says the NAEA's Westby. 'They need to ask questions at the start about costs, as this is the point when they have a chance for negotiation. There may be room for a discount.'

This article goes further into fees.

http://money.guardian.co.uk/renting/story/0,,1217095,00.html

The following article discusses the fairness of agents being paid fees over and over again when tenancies are renewed.

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article1519374.ece