Romans letting admin fee of £624!

G_M

Since the debate is opening out, let me open it out further:

the issue is not just immigration; it is a combination of

* a world with too many people, with the numbers ever climbing and
* a world with growing conflicts, forcing those excess peope to move and
* global warming, which will force yet more migrations of people

Building a few more new homes in the UK will not solve the problem. Long term, the solution is world-wide control of the birth-rate, and world-wide action on global warming.

Though thinking about it conflicts do have the upside of reducing local populations, as do major epidemics.

And once resistance to antibiotics becomes widespread, that too will reduce population dramatically, reducing the demand for housing, and bringing down prices.

Happy Christmas everyone!

:xmassign:

alchemist.1

Immigration wont be making any difference to the types of property talked about on this thread.

rtho782

As has been suggested, rent direct from the LL (Openrent and Gumtree are good for these) or use another agency.

Our last place in Bristol (which has a very overheated lettings market) was direct to landlord, no fees.

Our current place in rural Suffolk, we went through a letting agent, and paid £250 for the both of us, with no other fees. It was just a tenant find service so now we pay rent etc direct to LL and deal with LL if we have any issues.

Direct to LL is the best way to go imho, and if not, there are much cheaper letting agents than that!

marksoton

G_M wrote: »

Since the debate is opening out, let me open it out further:

the issue is not just immigration; it is a combination of

* a world with too many people, with the numbers ever climbing and
* a world with growing conflicts, forcing those excess peope to move and
* global warming, which will force yet more migrations of people

Building a few more new homes in the UK will not solve the problem. Long term, the solution is world-wide control of the birth-rate, and world-wide action on global warming.

Though thinking about it conflicts do have the upside of reducing local populations, as do major epidemics.

And once resistance to antibiotics becomes widespread, that too will reduce population dramatically, reducing the demand for housing, and bringing down prices.

Happy Christmas everyone!

:xmassign:

I was rather hoping your inclination to feed everyone with cake would have the desired effect.

Or star Wars just happened.

dinkylink

Certainly made me think that if I ever need to find new tenants I will be asking the letting agents how much they charge tenants

sniggings

marksoton wrote: »

I'm no fan of current immigration policy but come on.That's not the issue here.

Enough houses are not being built.

Those that have been are ridiculously priced.

RTB should be abolished.

The whole house buying/renting process in England needs legislative change.

Every man and his monkey have taken full advantage of the fact the above hasn't happened. Namely agents and LL's.

the amount of new housing needed per year quoted quite often is 200,000 per year, this year 300,000 extra people have moved to this country (that we know of) how can you possibly not see the link.

Seems the government want to fill the country up now, and leave no room for anyone else for the years to come.

purplepardalis

This happened to us earlier this year. Found an amazing house, lots of people viewing. We were then chosen to apply only to find out that fees were £570 and the annual tenancy renewal was £150 per year.
Given the very low cost of referencing, this is a rip off. And it is in the agent's interest to find new tenants after a year rather than renew. So no guarantee of a long term tenancy.
I took great satisfaction in telling them that I didn't want to pay their fees and turned the house down.

A few weeks later we found a private let in an equally lovely house! Fees were zero!
I would say don't pay the fees and keep looking. Because feeling ripped off will spoil the enjoyment of living there

baldelectrician

What's needed is the government to step in and prevent any fees other than the rent and a deposit.


Keeping the above in mind, at least one government has done that- and it hasn't stopped the rental market at all.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-33782744

AdrianC

sniggings wrote: »

the amount of new housing needed per year quoted quite often is 200,000 per year, this year 300,000 extra people have moved to this country (that we know of) how can you possibly not see the link.

Are those new migrants taking up a property each? No. Not even close. On the whole, they're happy to house-share in fairly high densities, unlike many of the "entitled" established population.
Is the population of the UK rising by 300,000 people per year? No. It's rising by over 600,000 per year - most population growth is due to births outnumbering deaths.

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

Pixie5740

Shelter are running a campaign to end letting agency fees for tenants in England. So if you want to see this issue discussed in parliament get signing.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns_/fixing_private_renting/letting_agencies/sign_our_petition