Rental agents fee for checking bank and personal reference

suepr

I have just viewed and applied to rent a house having been in my current rental for nine years. The agents require a fee of £150 to make a bank reference and personal reference check. This seems to be a very high fee. It is not refundable whether my application is successful or not and I know of at least two other parties interested in the rental. Can anyone shed light on why it is so expensive, please?

roguebrogue

All agents (well as far as I know) charge an agency fee, and unfortuntely from my experience it's usually between £100-£150...

withabix

This should be payable by the landlord if it was fair, as it is the landlord who is benefitting, not the tenant.

This would be the same way that employment agencies aren't allowed to charge 'recruits'.

Sammy85_2

Hi,

Usually it is us LL's that have to foot the bill for these checks. With my agency the tenants still have to pay a fee of around £100 to register with the agency themselves though. Your agency may work differently.

All i can suggest is calling them and clarifying what the fees are for exactly and querie the LL paying these.

real1314

Or, go with a private LL, get the reference letters yourself and just pay the costs of the cerdit check? (can be as low as £8 apparently)

Lavendyr

£150 is actually pretty standard from my experience with letting agencies, some go up to £300 from what I've heard on here! But of course you can avoid that by renting privately.

pcwilkins

It is so expensive because that is how the agency make a large proportion of their profit. You could try haggling over it --- they may prefer to reduce it by £50 rather than lose a tenant --- but at the end of the day it's your decision whether or not to pay it.

Peter

Notlob

Sammy85 wrote: »

With my agency the tenants still have to pay a fee of around £100 to register with the agency themselves though.

Could you please clarify this.

Are you saying that prospective tenants pay this registration fee whether they have found a property or not?

Notlob

Sammy85_2

Yes. The agency charges a £100 fee for tenants to get on the agents "books". You can view properties without paying any fee, but you wont get information sent to you automatically when properties become available. As rental properties are in such high demand here any chance to get information before the adverts go up is generally a good idea. Its just another way for the agency to cash in.

The LL then pays for any searches related to potential tenants (credit & personal checks)

Hope that clarifys for you.

Notlob

Sammy,

Can I refer you to the Accommodation Agencies Act 1953.

http://www.letlink.co.uk/letting-factsheets/factsheets/factsheet-16---the-accommodation-agencies-act-1953.html

Notlob

kunekune

Sammy,

So ...

There is a shortage of properties.
You have more applicants than properties available.
If anyone wants a chance of seeing a property before it is let, they need to be on your database.
You charge them money to be on your database.
Most of the people on your database don't get a property through your agency, but you still get their money.

Aren't you making rather a (dodgy) profit here?????