Rightmove agency fees giving me a heart attack, where should I look?

Jones51412

The deposit and first months rent i'm fine with. Then you have all the other fees such as:

Your administration fees £150-200
Your reference fees £90-120
Your tendency renewal fees £90-150
Your property inspection fees £90-130

This doesn't seem very fair to me. I spoke to some of the agencies advertising on there and apparently they won't give any of them back if they do their reference and credit checks and then arbitrarily decide not to give you the properly - which would leave you out of pocket a good £300+

rightmove has a lot of properties on it, but this really feels like they are taking advantage of me and trying to suck as much money out of me as possible. However, I really like the map they have on the site that lets you quickly see how far away the properties are from places I will potentially be working.

I imagine that the landlord has a deal with the agency, that would force me to deal with the agency so they get all their fees. Is there any other site that is not full of predators and has a decent number of places to rent available?

Pixie5740

Move to Scotland where such fees are unlawful.

In all seriousness though if you want to avoid huge agency fees then you need to find landlords who don't use letting agencies full stop. Gumtree (but watch out for scammers) or Citylets might be a good place to start. Noticeboards at work maybe?

Innys1

Shop around - not all agencies who advertise on RM have extortionate tenant fees.

Of course, if you've fallen in love with a gaff and the landlord has signed up to an agent who rips of tenants, you're knackered.

Innys1

Pixie5740 wrote: »

Move to Scotland where such fees are unlawful.

In all seriousness though if you want to avoid huge agency fees then you need to find landlords who don't use letting agencies full stop. Gumtree (but watch out for scammers) or Citylets might be a good place to start. Noticeboards at work maybe?

Most landlords with decent properties won't touch Gumtree.

Plus, RM has pretty much cornered the market so they are obliged to go with an agent who advertises there.

Pixie5740

Innys1 wrote: »

Most landlords with decent properties won't touch Gumtree.

Plus, RM has pretty much cornered the market so they are obliged to go with an agent who advertises there.

What about landlords who have decided to fly solo rather than paying letting agents for doing diddly squat? Where do they advertise? They must advertise somewhere.

Innys1

Pixie5740 wrote: »

What about landlords who have decided to fly solo rather than paying letting agents for doing diddly squat? Where do they advertise? They must advertise somewhere.

Until landlords are able to post direct onto RM, most will have to appoint an agent to do it for them - albeit by reducing the fees they (the landlords) have to pay to an absolute minimum.

Any properties on Gumtree aren't going to get anywhere near the same level of exposure.

jamei305

There are plenty of virtual agents that don't charge tenant fees and allow landlords to list on rightmove. Openrent and Rentify are two that spring to mind.

fierystormcloud

If you think THAT is bad; one of my nieces has recently signed for a house share near her uni as she cannot stay in halls next academic year. She is going to be sharing with 5 other people in a 6 bed house share.

The rent is £400 a month each, and the admin fee is £299 EACH. So the property agent is getting £1794 for typing up 6 tenancy agreements, doing 6 credit checks, making about 12-15 phone calls, and ....... no that's it. Almost two grand for NAFF ALL really.

Absolutely disgusting.