Reference fees advice

Herparadise

Hi
Me and my partner have given our months notice to leave the property we currently live in, to move into a new one. We need a reference to move into this new property, and when asking the agency to provide this, they said we needed to give our notice first, so we have now done this in writing.

They are now asking for £25+30 VAT per reference.

I understand the Tenant Fees Ban that came into affect recently, they emailed us yesterday asking for this payment.
I understand the new ban is affecting tenancies starting on or after 1st June, but I have also read on the gov website that any tenancies before the 1st of June, can still have these fees charged, but needs to be agreed within the tenancy.

Our tenancy agreement states "
Section 7.2 says:

The Tenant agrees that the Landlord can forward details about how the Tenant has conducted this tenancy to any prospective future landlord, and to other agents, landlords and bad tenant databases if they have conducted the tenancy in an unsatisfactory manner. The tenant agrees that the landlord can pass details he has about the tenant to any creditor of the tenant who may make an enquiry about him."

But mentions no fee, let alone a specific price.

The only fees specified in our agreement is the late payment fees etc.
I know agencies aren't obliged to give references, but are they correct for now asking us to pay this amount to provide one?

G_M

Referencing fees are not on the list of permitted fees. And any fee not on the'permitted' list i by definition 'not permitted'. Hence it cannot (I think) be charged. This seems strange (to me) as there is an asociated cost with producing a reference for the benefit of the tenant- maybe the Act will be amended over time.


But as the Act is so new there is no court precedents so it's 'wait and see', but if I were an agent I'd err on the side of caution and either
* produce a reference for free or
* decline to produce a reference!

Herparadise

Is that even affecting tenancies before the 1st of June?
Ours was signed in September 2018. But I did read that any fees charged for tenancies before 1st of June need to be stated in the agreement.
Its all a bit new to me!

G_M

Yes fees specified in pre-1/6/19 tenancy agreements can be chargd up till 1/6/20. Fuller details here:

Gov Guidance Notes

I've just seen:

Q. Can a landlord or agent ask me or my future landlord to pay for a reference?No. After 1 June 2019 a landlord or agent cannot charge you for providing a reference in relation to privately rented housing in England. If your new agent or landlord requests a reference from a previous landlord or agent, they would have to negotiate this with them directly and pay any associated costs.

but this would be for new tenancies post 1/6/19, so I now suspect you can be charged the fee as it was specified (albeit you could query the amount) in your original TA.

Herparadise

That's what I'm confused about, as it doesn't specify anywhere in our Original TA about reference fees.
It mentions about late payment fees.
We've looked through the whole thing and there isn't anything about charging for references. So there isn't even a specific price let alone a clause to state they would charge for this.

"If you entered into a tenancy before 1 June 2019, a landlord or agent will still
be able to charge fees up until 31 May 2020, but only where these are
required under an existing tenancy agreement. This might include, for
example, fees to renew a fixed-term agreement where you had already
agreed to pay these."

This aren't fees we have agreed to and we can't find anwywhre to state that we did.

G_M

You're right.S 7.2 seems to be about data protecion- you are consenting to your tenancy history being passed on to a potential fuure landlord. You are not consenting to paying a fee for this.

I think you could challenge this fee, though of course that might result in no reference being provided (or worse, a half-hearted reference) - which might then cause you problems with a new landlord.....



Sorry if I've been contradicting myself - it'a all new to all of us!

Herparadise

I do appreciate your help! It's all a bit new to everyone, but I know there's people that probably know more about it then we do and want to just make sure that we aren't be scammed out of money. We have had a lot of problems with this agency from the start which is one of the reasons we're moving.

I've also heard that if we pay the fee, and have been wrongly asked to pay a prohibited fee then we can get our money back and the agency could possibly be fine.

I'm thinking it might be worth just paying the fee to get the reference and then challenging after that's done and we do more research on the matter?

need_an_answer

Have you thought about approaching the LL direct for a reference, or have they directed you back to the agency?

G_M

Herparadise wrote: »

I'm thinking it might be worth just paying the fee to get the reference and then challenging after that's done and we do more research on the matter?

That's certainly an option.


If you, don't forget to come back and tell us the outcome so we ll gt a btter handle on the new rules and how they ar working!

Herparadise

No we haven't really thought of that actually. The LL isn't very reliable though, and all communication has gone between us and the agency so I'm assuming he would probably just send us through to the agency for this. Could be an option though.

Herparadise

G_M wrote: »

That's certainly an option.


If you, don't forget to come back and tell us the outcome so we ll gt a btter handle on the new rules and how they ar working!

Will keep you updated on how it goes!