Ban on buy to let agency fee's for tenants

westernpromise

ruggedtoast wrote: »

The last property I rented I was charged a £150 reservation fee and told if the landlord decided not to rent to me after the agent had passed on the application it wouldn't be refunded.

I then had to pay a further £300 for Homelet referencing and tenancy. The agent was so cheap they didn't even use Homelet after I had filled in the form.

I had to provide them my own bank statements, and email my own referees and forward them the responses. No credit search was even done. Obviously the landlord was getting no protection whatsoever.

Weeks later and we still hadn't had the countersigned tenancy agreement back so I went into the office in my lunch hour and asked for it.

The girl glanced up from her computer and said

"We don't give tenancy agreements to tenants in case you lose them" and went back to typing.

This was the largest agent in the town.

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, toastie. She obviously took one look at you...have you considered that her experience of tenants is probably much more extensive than yours and that when she said "We don't give tenancy agreements to tenants in case you lose them" she was saying so advisedly?

steampowered

westernpromise wrote: »

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, toastie. She obviously took one look at you...have you considered that her experience of tenants is probably much more extensive than yours and that when she said "We don't give tenancy agreements to tenants in case you lose them" she was saying so advisedly?

The standard practice for all contracts, including tenancy agreements, is to sign two copies. Each party to the contract walks away with one original.

I think it is more likely that this letting agent was simply lazy.

westernpromise

steampowered wrote: »

The standard practice for all contracts, including tenancy agreements, is to sign two copies. Each party to the contract walks away with one original.

I think it is more likely that this letting agent was simply lazy.

I'm not convinced. Based on 20-odd years of observation of tenants they frequently are completely gormless. If toastie rocked up to my lettings agent's offices unwashed and unshaven, with a scruffy little moustache, pegs missing off his duffle coat, wearing his filthy vest and with his shoes done up with baler twine and clutching his JSA claim papers, they'd give him a pretty dusty answer.

Conrad

I'm thinking Letting Agents will set up new Ltd Co entities specifically offering reference gathering and credit searches and still charge tenants via this non Letting Agent entity?


I could set up such a business easily myself, I have a lot of time to spare, but cant work-out whether Letting Agents would find a way to set up such a referencing firm themselves so they don't miss out on valuable income (a Letting Agent arranging 10 new lets per month is set to loose about £3k per month)


I have asked 2 agents their thoughts on my proposal

Mr.Generous

do all the tenants out there realise the agents charge the landlord a fee too? they have a snout in both sides of the trough. Has anyone actually ever read the T&C's from Countrywide? they are unbelievable, they get a fee when the wind changes.

chucknorris

westernpromise wrote: »

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, toastie. She obviously took one look at you...have you considered that her experience of tenants is probably much more extensive than yours and that when she said "We don't give tenancy agreements to tenants in case you lose them" she was saying so advisedly?

Toastie has been very unlucky in life, first of all the children that he went to school with who trained harder than him, were better at sports than he was. The ones who studied harder than him achieved better qualifications than him. Even more unluckily, those qualifications somehow got them better jobs than him. He would have given up trying, but he couldn't, because he hasn't started trying yet.

steampowered

westernpromise wrote: »

I'm not convinced. Based on 20-odd years of observation of tenants they frequently are completely gormless. If toastie rocked up to my lettings agent's offices unwashed and unshaven, with a scruffy little moustache, pegs missing off his duffle coat, wearing his filthy vest and with his shoes done up with baler twine and clutching his JSA claim papers, they'd give him a pretty dusty answer.

I don't see why any of that matters. I can't think of a reason why letting agents can't give tenants a copy of their tenancy agreement at the start of a tenancy, other than incompetence or laziness.

So long as the landlord keeps a copy of the agreement, it is not his problem if the tenant loses it.

To be honest, if the letting agent refuses to give a copy of the tenancy agreement to the tenant, I wonder if that could cause problems for the landlord in future. I doubt a judge would be quick to enforce the terms of an agreement which was not given to the tenant.

Guest101

Conrad wrote: »

I'm thinking Letting Agents will set up new Ltd Co entities specifically offering reference gathering and credit searches and still charge tenants via this non Letting Agent entity?


I could set up such a business easily myself, I have a lot of time to spare, but cant work-out whether Letting Agents would find a way to set up such a referencing firm themselves so they don't miss out on valuable income (a Letting Agent arranging 10 new lets per month is set to loose about £3k per month)


I have asked 2 agents their thoughts on my proposal

Why would the tenants use it?

Guest101

ruggedtoast wrote: »

The last property I rented I was charged a £150 reservation fee and told if the landlord decided not to rent to me after the agent had passed on the application it wouldn't be refunded. - Wrong

I then had to pay a further £300 for Homelet referencing and tenancy. The agent was so cheap they didn't even use Homelet after I had filled in the form. - irrelevant

I had to provide them my own bank statements - why? , and email my own referees -and forward them the responses - why? . No credit search was even done - because they cant . Obviously the landlord was getting no protection whatsoever.

Weeks later and we still hadn't had the countersigned tenancy agreement back so I went into the office in my lunch hour and asked for it.

The girl glanced up from her computer and said

"We don't give tenancy agreements to tenants in case you lose them" and went back to typing.

This was the largest agent in the town.

That's unfortunate, but you should really keep a copy before you sign it.

HornetSaver

Conrad wrote: »

I'm thinking Letting Agents will set up new Ltd Co entities specifically offering reference gathering and credit searches and still charge tenants via this non Letting Agent entity?

Thank goodness. We can't have this revolutionary new wave of politics removing the means of the few to **** over the many.