Letting Agent Fees

Herbalus

tukka123 wrote: »

So if I agree if my landlord that we will do this the LL or I can hand in a notice period when we want. 1 month 6 month a years time etc....

Yes. You don't even have to agree with the landlord. Doesn't matter if you agree with him or not, or even speak to him.

Basically if you don't sign a new contract then the law says you start a rolling contract automatically. Then the landlord - if he wants you out - has to give you a minimum of 2 months notice via a Section 21 notice, and you have to give the landlord a minimum of 1 months notice.

The simplest way of dealing with this (if you want to and don't want the security of a fixed term) is to ignore letting agent's demands for a renewal. You don't have to do this and they can't force you.

I don't know about the DPS fee.

Herbalus

http://www.depositprotection.com/documents/insured-pricing.pdf

Seems to indicate a fee of £9.50 for letting agents. Not sure if that's a one-off payment for the deposit or an annual requirement. But definitely not £40+VAT.

That website doesn't mention any fees for tenants though, but a letting agent will always try and pass these things on.

tukka123

Herbalus wrote: »

http://www.depositprotection.com/documents/insured-pricing.pdf

Seems to indicate a fee of £9.50 for letting agents. Not sure if that's a one-off payment for the deposit or an annual requirement. But definitely not £40+VAT.

That website doesn't mention any fees for tenants though, but a letting agent will always try and pass these things on.

Great news

Turns out I should be able to tell the agent to sod off....

1- agree with the LL that I will auto go onto the rolling contract with a 2 month notice period for both me an d the LL

3- phoned te deposit people and they said that as long as the LL tell them then it will be protect at no extra cost until we start a new fixed term lease. Also the cost would be 24 in total not 40 plus VAT.

4- all I would have to pay is the exit fee so maybe they will try and recop some money there.


I gave them every opportunity to reduce the price to a fair cost....

AFK_Matrix

1. No its 2 months notice from your LL to you and 1 month notice from you to the LL.

Not sure what happend to 2 but:

4. What exit fee? there is no exit fee from the DPS as far as I am aware, well not 1.5 years ago when i was with the DPS. I also didn't have to pay a thing to the DPS when I went on a rolling contract but maybe that has changed as that was like 4 years ago.

Herbalus

There's no need to tell them to sod off. Just decline nicely or ignore them. Otherwise it might not leave them particularly inclined to inform the landlord very quickly if your boiler breaks....

PasturesNew

When my term ended, I was sent a letter offering me two choices: [1] leave, or, [2] renew at a cost of £XXX.

If I'd not known I could go onto rolling contract they'd have never said... and, even so, it took three conversations "leans" by the firm checking what I wanted to do before they stopped hassling me to renew for £XXX

Road_Hog

tukka123 wrote: »

Anyone know if the GOV will put something in place soon?:mad:

I wouldn't be asking for government legislation. They always want a cut of any scheme they come up with and I can assure you that that gets passed onto the tenants.

atarisrocks

i had to pay £50 to renew mine even though their website clearly shows now renewal fees but the tenancy agreement says otherwise.

the problem i find is you cant avoid the fees easily because when you find a place you like only one letting agency run it so you cant say i want to rent it but *insert rival agent name* is offering no or discounted fees so you have little bargaining power. it either pay our fees or find another place

browneyedbazzi

I was at an event with someone from the ASA recently and they are looking at how lettings agents operate. Primarily because agents have a tendency to drip feed fees so that tenants don't know all the costs up front (and they also like to give fees as £x plus VAT which they shouldn't).

I believe the government are also looking at lettings agents and considering how best to deal with the extortionate fees that tenants pay - in some countries they aren't allowed to charge tenants fees so any costs are covered by the LL (rents would obviously increase to reflect this added overhead for LLs) - this is one option being considered for England. Sadly it all seems to be moving at an excruciatingly slow pace.

BillNBob

Our fixed term tenancy ended in April after 12 months. Tenancy is managed by LL but agency handles paperwork!!
We requested a rolling month to month tenancy which was agreed so nothing to do, we thought. Agent asked us to sign that we would continue in this fashion and charged £60, LL requested we do this.
Dont understand the logic at all, just that we were out of pocket again.