Fee to change stock tenancy agreement

flyingrobotdog

Hello,

Is an agent/landlord allowed to charge the £50 fee to amend the initial tenancy agreement for a brand new AST? As in no agreement yet exists, but they wish to charge £50 to change the agreement from the boilerplate one they use on all properties to include the allowance of pets.

Thanks

[Deleted User]

flyingrobotdog said:

Hello,

Is an agent/landlord allowed to charge the £50 fee to amend the initial tenancy agreement for a brand new AST? As in no agreement yet exists, but they wish to charge £50 to change the agreement from the boilerplate one they use on all properties to include the allowance of pets.

Thanks

In short, no. Landlords and letting agencies in England are allowed to charge £50 for variation, assignment or novation of a tenancy but you don’t have a tenancy yet to vary, assign or novate. The letting agency shouldn’t even need to change the wording in their big standard tenancy agreement for you to have a pet anyway. Either the agreement is silent on the matter of pets or should have wording along the lines of, "A Tenant must seek the prior written consent of the Landlord should they wish to keep pets or other animals at the Property. A Landlord must not unreasonably withhold or delay a written request from a Tenant without considering the request on its own merits." The permission doesn’t need to be in the AST itself. 

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tenant-fees-act