Tenant Fees - Infuriating

Guest101

Naf wrote: »

You're saying that your payment history could be totally trashed with defaults littered over your file, but as long as theres no CCJs, you'd pass a LA check? I'm not convinced...




Except that if you're poor you can't (and probably havent had the education to know that you should be able to). The LA can just issue a perfectly legal and legit S21 if you don't abide by one of their unfair terms, and although a legal challenge may well be succesful, you don't know that or have the recourse to be able to do it anyway.

Given that defaults don't show in 99% of letting agent checks - yes

S21 has no legal challenge worth of note

chucknorris

ultimatefighter wrote: »

I am about to move into a property however as a tenant, the agency want £355 in fees.


£240 for admin
£115 for check in


Tenant ref actual cost £20
Tenancy agreement cost £0 as copied and pasted from others simply time (doesn't take an hour to amend details)
Survey of Property.


I spoke with the director of the letting agency who did not want to reduce fees whatsoever. He was not up for negotiating in the slightest.


What can one do about this aside from pay the £40 to £50 it costs for the survey oneself and avoid the £115


But the £240 for admin... that's £220 spare..


the landlord is also being charged.

I'm a landlord and I don't generally use letting agents, in my experience they can cause almost as many problems as they solve. But occasionally I do use them when the rental market is a bit quiet, but we add their fee to the rent (generally I rent a little below market value, to get a decent choice of prospective tenants). Once it created a situation where I was showing tenants the flat, at the same time that the letting agent was, but I was offering it at £1,500/month and he was offering it at £1,590/month.

When we rent direct to tenants we only charge them the tenancy deposit fee, which is less than £30.

Naf

Guest101 wrote: »

Given that defaults don't show in 99% of letting agent checks - yes

Very interesting. Something which people should know, and LAs should be forced to disclose so they can stop scaring people who don't know better. I'm reasonably savvy, and I still got treated like dirt by the last one I had to deal with.

Guest101 wrote: »

S21 has no legal challenge worth of note

If it could be shown that the eviction was as a direct result of not complying with an illegal term in the contract, there may be some chance - but I agree its really unlikely. Which is all the more reason that the poor are seriously disadvantaged by illegal terms in contracts.

Naf

chucknorris wrote: »

I'm a landlord and I don't generally use letting agents, in my experience they can cause almost as many problems as they solve. But occasionally I do use them when the rental market is a bit quiet, but we add their fee to the rent (generally I rent a little below market value, to get a decent choice of prospective tenants). Once it created a situation where I was showing tenants the flat, at the same time that the letting agent was, but I was offering it at £1,500/month and he was offering it at £1,590/month.

When we rent direct to tenants we only charge them the tenancy deposit fee, which is less than £30.

One day I hope to be a LL and, like you, treat people with fairness and respect - and demand the same if I were to use a LA.

davidmcn

Guest101 wrote: »

Dominos charge £18 for a pizza, is that unfair?

And do you change your answer once you find out that everyone in Scotland gets their pizzas for free? :rotfl:

Naf

davidmcn wrote: »

And do you change your answer once you find out that everyone in Scotland gets their pizzas for free? :rotfl:

What, you only pay for the batter?

sharp910sh

Think you got it bad, I just paid £120 for referencing for me and my gf plus £180 for admin, £144 for check out, so £444 in total.

But what can you do other than vote labour or move to scotland?

Pixie5740

Naf wrote: »

Very interesting. Something which people should know, and LAs should be forced to disclose so they can stop scaring people who don't know better. I'm reasonably savvy, and I still got treated like dirt by the last one I had to deal with.

It depends on how detailed a credit check is carried out but many letting agencies only check the public register which only contains information about insolvency (IVA, bankruptcy, DRO) and CCJs.

Naf wrote: »

If it could be shown that the eviction was as a direct result of not complying with an illegal term in the contract, there may be some chance - but I agree its really unlikely. Which is all the more reason that the poor are seriously disadvantaged by illegal terms in contracts.

If the landlord used the Section 21 eviction route there would be no chance because a landlord needs no reason (ground) to issue a Section 21 and providing the paperwork is in order there is no defense against it. However, if the landlord issued a Section 8 based on what (s)he thinks is a breach of the tenancy agreement then the tenant could have an opportunity to defend against it.

Pixie5740

sharp910sh wrote: »

Think you got it bad, I just paid £120 for referencing for me and my gf plus £180 for admin, £144 for check out, so £444 in total.

But what can you do other than vote labour or move to scotland?

Shelter England did have a petition to end letting fees. It got enough signatures, was discussed in parliament but MPs decided that no action was to be taken. Gits.

Naf

Pixie5740 wrote: »

If the landlord used the Section 21 eviction route there would be no chance because a landlord needs no reason (ground) to issue a Section 21 and providing the paperwork is in order there is no defense against it. However, if the landlord issued a Section 8 based on what (s)he thinks is a breach of the tenancy agreement then the tenant could have an opportunity to defend against it.

Which bolsters my original point that the poor are actually seriously disadvantaged by LA's illegal terms in contracts.