Charging different people different agency fees?

greensalad

jjlandlord wrote: »

What leverage does she think she has?

If they are falsely advertising fees in their office (i.e they are advertising one fee, then charging extra when it comes to it) then surely they are liable to be fined (up to £5,000)?

jjlandlord

greensalad wrote: »

If they are falsely advertising fees in their office (i.e they are advertising one fee, then charging extra when it comes to it) then surely they are liable to be fined (up to £5,000)?

She is clueless and she screwed up. She can play it the hard way but this will just lead to her being evicted quickly.

If the fact that the tenancy has been surrendered is solid then they don't need further notice to start court proceedings.

Pixie5740

Yes they could complain to the local council if the letting ageny is not compliant. The council can fine the agent up to £5000 (but that doesn't mean to the say the council will actually do anything at all).

Rather than getting caught up in all this fees business your friend needs to think about what she ultimately wants to achieve and what the best way of going about it is.

Fact 1: When a joint tenant ends the tenancy, it ends the tenancy for everyone.

Fact 2: This outgoing tenant has caused a lot of ball-ache for everyone involved by not sticking to the original tenancy agreement and signing scrap bits of paper willy nilly.

Fact 3: If the outgoing tenant did end up homeless it would have been entirely of her own making.

Fact 4: The landlord is getting pestered with all this nonsense.

Fact 5: If the landlord is irritated enough then it will be a Section 21 for everyone.

If your friend wants to remain in this property then antagonising the landlord and letting agent over fees is not the way to go about it.

greensalad

jjlandlord wrote: »

She is clueless and she screwed up. She can play it the hard way but this will just lead to her being evicted quickly.

If the fact that the tenancy has been surrendered is solid then they don't need further notice to start court proceedings.

The initial tenancy was surrendered. There is a new tenancy now in place for the next 3 months (2.5 months by now). She has spoken to the LL and he has no intentions of evicting her, but he wants her to find a new tenant if she can (or else she will leave in 3 months). It seems foolish of the LA to slap on an extra fee because they feel like it and I'm sure the LL would love to know that his LA are acting illegally. Even if he did decide to evict her and issued an S21 he would only be able to evict her at the end of the new 3 month tenancy anyway so I doubt it's worth his trouble.

jjlandlord

greensalad wrote: »

The initial tenancy was surrendered. There is a new tenancy now in place for the next 3 months.

This is not what you wrote previously.
If that is the case then why is she looking for a replacement tenant?

greensalad

jjlandlord wrote: »

This is not what you wrote previously.
If that is the case then why is she looking for a replacement tenant?

I did write it initially:

he was able to negotiate a three month short tenancy, where he would pay half the rent and she would continue to pay her normal share, effectively giving her three months to either find her own place

The reason she is looking for a new tenant, which I also wrote:

giving her three months to either find her own place, or find a tenant that she could go to the LA with and request for a 12 month tenancy all over again, but of course all the time she's living alone she's costing her father rent money so she's been trying to find someone ASAP

She is trying to sort out her mistake by finding a new tenant to start a new 12 month tenancy. She has found a new tenant, and the LA are now boosting the reference fee by 30%. I am trying to find out if they can legally boost fees or if they must always charge the initial fee quoted. (They charged the old prospective tenant £300, and now there is a second new tenant they are charging £420. The fee has gone up 30% in 4 weeks.)