Lettings Agent Charging £60 Late Fee

Purplemonkeyspank

New here so please be gentle. Don't need any "pay on time" or "landlords have bills to pay too..." comments please. Also sorry if this isn't the correct section for the question.

I'm late with the rent this month and was stung with a £60 fee on top of the orignal £395 rent. Is that normal/acceptable? I understand some places like to charge for whatever they can but £60 seems a little excessive. These guys also charge £100 to renew a tenency too.

I don't have access to my tenency agreement (I may have binned it when clearing out some drawers) so can't check myself. I know you guys give some excellent advice so I'd like to see what you say before I tell my lettings agent to do one. Or not. Whatever.

walwyn1978

Sadly if it's in the tenancy agreement that you signed you don't have a leg to stand on.

How late was the rent? A day? A week?

pmlindyloo

Have a look on the letting agent's website and see if these late fees are prominently displayed as this is a requirement.

Also see, if they belong to a letting agents association and check their 'take' on late fees.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/buytolet/article-3210142/What-fees-letting-agent-charging-are.html

Another useful link:

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/letting_agent_fees_for_tenants

InterestedParty2018

It is not unusual for any institution to charge fees on late payments and it is very likely that the Tenancy agreement allows for fees (and possibly interest) to be charged. So to answer your question - yes, this is normal/acceptable.

The next question you may ask is if £60 (£50+VAT) is reasonable. This could be argued from both perspectives, but ultimately late payments (either chasing or processing) involves time. Time=money.

There also has to be some sort of penalty for late payment, to avoid it happening time and time again. Some individuals may have the occasional blip, but others are repeat offenders. Sadly for the "one-off" individual everyone needs to be treated the same.

theartfullodger

Simply decline to pay it. If agency sees fit to attempt to recover it from deposit they may or may not win, similarly if they try court action.


Clearly...
a) Cost of coping with one month's late rent is way way way way less than £60. £5 maybe, but not more..
b) Any landlord stupid enough not to be able to cope with (say..) 7 months no-rent whilst the tenant-from-hell (or agent-from-hell...) doesn;t pay with legal expenses etc is a fool to himself. Trying to get a tenant to pay for their lack-of-planning is mildly bonkers..
c) Bet the agent holds onto it & landlord never sees it.


Artful (landlord btw...)

need_an_answer

I'm not going to justify the amount other than you would have been given clear indication of any charges and fees levied by the agent within the agreement that you signed.
It is a valuable document in terms of the information it provides so should have been treated with more respect than being "binned"....theres your lesson learnt.

Its also worth pointing out that the LL will not benefit from the late payment charge in any way as it is solely an agent fee and whilst you may think that all LL's are coining it in some really do depend on the rental income.

Going forward you need to address whether this is a one off or if it is likely to happen again.
I'm a LL and in honesty if my tenants were finding paying the rent difficult I would try and look for solutions that may help especially if it is short term and they were tenants I wanted to keep,although prolonged late or non payment would need to be addressed.
Hopefully you have contact details for your LL direct again these would have been on the original tenancy agreement

Don't "head in the sand" it may only get worse speak to your LL if you can. Some do have a human side!

Purplemonkeyspank

Ok thanks guys. A bit of a mixed message but I thank you all the same.

To me £60 is way too excessive and in no way (as far as I can tell) a fair price for only the one email received about it. Also it very well may be written into the tenency agreement but that's still no justification for such a high fee.

I'll pay it even though like theartfullodger says, the actual landlord probably won't see a penny or even know something is up.

Cheers, guys.

steampowered

Letting agents are required to publish fees on their website. Have a look to see if it is there.

It is legitimate to ask for a copy of your tenancy agreement if you have lost yours. See what it says about late payment.

Foxtons say on their website that they charge £60 for a 'letter' about non-payment, I don't think an email would count if it is Foxtons.