HELP!! rental agency fees

Tondella

about to move and rent in a new city .... before i start viewing properties I just wanted to guage whether anyone has had success in negotiating down agancy fees (or not paying them alltogether).

what costs does the rental agency fee cover anyway, and is the fee charged reasonable in respect of these costs?

thanks for your help

losgiganteskid

I know the fees for rentals in my area are scandalous, you as a tenant get charged and I as a landlord get stung for about one third of the first months rent. All together I thing the agent is on a winner.

lynzpower

hi tondella :hello:

I managed to negotiate only me being credit checked and not my OH, so that saved us 50.00 quid.

Not loads, but better than nothing!

If you are a solo renter tho this wont be an option

Tondella

Hi guys, thanks for your answers (lynzpower, i have pm'd you as well, but sent the message prematurely and so it cuts off abruptly, sorry to appear rude there)

I know that the landlord often gets charged by the rental agency too, and that was what made me think that there might be some element of profit in the fees.

I'll be renting with my OH, so there is some chance of negotiating for one credit check only (£50 saving is no mean thing) ... do you know what else the agency fee is supposed to cover? What about agencies that charge no fees, do they recoup the costs in higher rent or other expenses?

psychostudy

Hi - I haven't found a way of avoiding them yet and my agency fees are super high. They charge one week's rent plus VAT for signing a contract and also for re-signing a contract. The only thing I would recommend is shopping around, not all agencies charge the same. Some are more reasonable than others!

Tondella

psychosudy that is an outrageous charge, especially for resigning a contract, how much effort does it take them to arrange that?!

dancingfairy

We feel we are being ripped off here as well. Trouble is we don't know what fees we need to pay. One company are charging us 550 pounds for start up plus 6 weeks deposit and 1 months rent, another is only charging 290 pounds plus 6 weeks deposit and 1 months rent. There is only 2 of us. They are claiming clerk costs for intventory, credit checks on me , my partner and both guarnators, admin fees in writing agreement, etc. Anyone know what's reasonable in this respect? P.s we are in Guildford in surrey and are looking at renting at about 750 pounds a month if that helps at all.
Thanks in advance.

franklee

losgiganteskid wrote: »

I know the fees for rentals in my area are scandalous, you as a tenant get charged and I as a landlord get stung for about one third of the first months rent. All together I thing the agent is on a winner.

But you as a landlord get to choose which agent you use - so CHANGE AGENTS! They are not all rip off merchants. Choose a well respected local agent - round here they charge 50 pounds per head, no renewal fees. That's far better then the chains who charge 300+!

Frankly both tenants and landlords should shop around and landlords should consider agent from the tenant's point of view too!

Tondella

UPDATE: Bristol rental agents live in a bubble! I've never encountered anything like it, not even renting in london! In the end we paid 35% of one month's rent plus VAT. I think the fact that it is a % gives away the fact that this charge is as much about profit as covering costs as tenants of a £625 pcm place cost just as much to check out as tenants of an £895 place. But in the end the agents had the property we really wanted, so we had to wear it. We've found such a nice place that we're hoping we won't be moving within Bristol again for some years, but it still smarts to pay so much!

franklee

Tondella wrote: »

UPDATE: Bristol rental agents live in a bubble! I've never encountered anything like it, not even renting in london! In the end we paid 35% of one month's rent plus VAT. I think the fact that it is a % gives away the fact that this charge is as much about profit as covering costs as tenants of a £625 pcm place cost just as much to check out as tenants of an £895 place. But in the end the agents had the property we really wanted, so we had to wear it. We've found such a nice place that we're hoping we won't be moving within Bristol again for some years, but it still smarts to pay so much!

That's outrageous, but if you thought it was worth it...

Don't hold too much hope of their ever being able to organise repairs though, that ability seems to be inversely proportional to the charges made!

Also look out for having been served an S21 notice requiring possession near the start of the tenancy. That's a little wheeze to rule out your staying on a periodic tenancy (if you do you could be asked to leave anytime as the S21 was your notice), so expect them to be asking you for a nice fat renewal fee every six months or year even though it's not necessary...

Tondella

well, we think that we'll be happy to stay there for at least three years, and although the fee was high the rent was relatively low in the bracket we were looking for, so we should "recoup" the agency fee in the first three months of rental.

The landlord will be managing the property privately - apparently he lives locally but doesn't own a mobile phone. We'll see how that goes, but the house is in pretty good condition at the moment and is well maintained outside so fingers crossed we won't encounter any major probs. Thanks for the warning regarding the notice period - I'll look out for that one.