Admin fees not advertised

wda04

Hi there,

I would just like to seek some other advice on whether what I think is correct please.

- The room was advertised by the current tenants on spareroom.com
- I viewed the room and accepted it. One of the tenants contacted the land-lady and the estate agent managing the property then contacted me.
- The advert did not state that the room was being held by a letting agent.
- The advert says: Fees Apply? - No
- No other fees are stated on the website
- The estate agents has emailed me and says that there is a £135+vat administration fee for moving into the property.
- The land-lady gave permission for the tenants to advertise and find a new tenant

My question is, since the advert did not state any additional fees would be charged. Am I subject to have to pay them?

The Advertising Standards Agency states this (I can't post the link to the website as I am a new user):

Lettings agents should ensure that non-optional fees, such as administration charges, are clearly stated in ads for properties being let, for example reference fees (including credit checks, bank, guarantor, previous landlord); application fees; fees for drawing up tenancy agreements; inventory fees etc. Ads should make clear whether charges are per tenant or per property.

A charge doesn't have to apply to everyone to be considered non-optional. As long as it's non-optional for those it applies to, the existence of the charge and information about how it is calculated should be made clear.

I've searched the estate agent website, and have included 'let/sold' rooms in my search, and can not find a reference to the room online, so I am 50% confident that the agent didn't actually advertise the property themselves.

Any advice would be appreciated, or if you have any other questions to help with my predicament (before I go back to them) then I will gratefully answer.

Cheers!

davidmcn

Presumably the current tenant will be covering the agent's fees, since they said no fees would apply to you?

wda04

I hadn't asked about fees with the current tenant, because the advert said there wouldn't be any.
I thought originally, that the tenants were working on behalf of the land lady since she was on holiday.
I didn't know an estate agent was involved, as quite often on spareroom.com, they aren't.

parking_question_chap

Yes it seems the advert is wrong. You can ask the question, but in reality if they say the fee applys are you really going to bother taking this any further? Would probably cost you more time and money to challenge it.

If they say its not negotiable, then decide how much you really want the room.