Estate agents fees for rental property

mightykate

HI

I have just found a property I want to rent unfortunately it is through an estate agent called William H Brown in Leeds. I am very shocked by their fees, they ask for a months rent + deposit + £100 up front which is pretty much expected. Then £45 for each applicant (just me) £85 for the tenancy agreement £ 125 for credit.checks. The rent is £550 per month this means I'll be paying £1455 which is alot of cash at the mo, have tried to find one privately but no luck.

I suppose this is the rate these days? My current situ is rented privately with no such fees.

any advice would be welcome

ta:j

lynzpower

I am very shocked by their fees, they ask for a months rent + deposit + £100 up front which is pretty much expected. Then £45 for each applicant (just me) £85 for the tenancy agreement £ 125 for credit.checks. The rent is £550 per month this means I'll be paying £1455 which is alot of cash at th mo, have tried to find one privately but no luck.

this seems excessive to me :

can you confirm
whats the 45 for?
I can see 125 being *about right* for credit checks although they definately do vary, we paid 100 for them. ( but only i was credit checked, not my partner saving money)
85 for a TA is ridiculous. DONT PAY THAT. they have to let with a ta, they cant do so without - well they could but it would be pure stupidity.

Find another agent, dont pay these shysters is my advice.

PasturesNew

I paid:
£150+VAT (£176.25) fees to the agent to do the credit checks (not sure what else was included in that)

I paid:
1.5x a month's rent as a deposit

I paid:
6 months' rent up front in full as I was not working. Not on Housing benefit or any other benefits.

My rent is £350, so I paid a total of £2,801.25 to move in.

Lavendyr

We paid:

£90 for two people (so £45 each) for credit/reference checks and to reserve the property as 'ours'

1.5 months rent as deposit in cleared funds

1 months rent up front in cleared funds

Our rent is £750 so total = £1965.

kunekune

Our agency is based in Skipton, so not so far from you. Initially, we were charged a credit check/application fee of around £120. We also paid one month's rent at that point as a 'holding fee'. This would be refunded if the credit check/references were not ok. The holding fee was then used as our first month's rent (£675). We didn't have to pay the deposit until just before we moved in, and that was £775.

So the total is quite similar, but with the difference they didn't take it all until the tenancy was definitely going ahead.