Question to landlord: who benefits if a tenant buys an insurance, chooses NDO?

_Penny_Dreadful

silvercar said:

In all walks of life you need to see the way the land lines and adjust your behaviour accordingly. Here a spend of £180 got you the flat you wanted. It isn’t far removed from offering a brown envelope containing cash. Bottom line is it worked for you, so compare that £180 with the extra costs you may have had if you hadn’t secured this property.

I am slightly surprised to find a forum board guide essentially saying, "suck it up buttercup."  The Tenant Fees Act 2019 was introduced to prevent landlords and letting agents charging tenants ridiculous fees.  I can see this NDO insurance ending up like PPI, in fact there was an article in the Guardian about it this weekend.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/dec/03/renters-forced-to-pay-hundreds-in-unethical-fees-to-secure-homes

_Penny_Dreadful

_Anna_ said:

@"[Deleted User]"
Yes, I would like to submit a claim when I will have finished my tenancy. This is what is unclear now for me: (i) where should I submit the claim? (ii) how I may prove that LA was telling me that an applicant who had chose NDO would get the property? I can imagine the following dispute:
Anna: There was a shortage of properties in Bristol. LA told me that the Landlords wanted a tenant who had chosen NDO. I felt that I needed to choose NDO otherwise I would not get this property. 3 months later I canceled NDO and entered into a traditional deposit scheme. Since I never wanted NDO and had enough money to pay my deposit at the begining of my tenancy I wasted 3 x 56 GBP.
LA: We suggested 2 options (NDO vs traditional deposit). Anna chose NDO, 3 months later she let us know that she wanted to switch into the traditional deposit option, we arranged this for her. Why does she want now that we will refund 3 x 56 GBP? This was her choice.

In the first instance you request the money back from the letting agent.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/922900/Tenant_Fees_Act_-_Tenant_Guidance.pdf

I would also suggest contacting your MP about this problem if you have found more than one letting agent basically saying that if you don't opt for the NDO insurance you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of being offered the property.

silvercar

_Penny_Dreadful said:

silvercar said:

In all walks of life you need to see the way the land lines and adjust your behaviour accordingly. Here a spend of £180 got you the flat you wanted. It isn’t far removed from offering a brown envelope containing cash. Bottom line is it worked for you, so compare that £180 with the extra costs you may have had if you hadn’t secured this property.

I am slightly surprised to find a forum board guide essentially saying, "suck it up buttercup."  The Tenant Fees Act 2019 was introduced to prevent landlords and letting agents charging tenants ridiculous fees.  I can see this NDO insurance ending up like PPI, in fact there was an article in the Guardian about it this weekend.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/dec/03/renters-forced-to-pay-hundreds-in-unethical-fees-to-secure-homes

Forums guides offer to help with the forum, don’t make the mistake of thinking that anything we write carries more weight than anyone else’s comments. This is an open forum, we are all entitled to our opinions, within the forum guidelines.

LegallyLandlord

As a landlord, I much prefer traditional deposits as the renter has skin in the game. They are keen to get it back at the end of the tenancy.  

The letting agents do get commission on the insurance options. When I used letting agents, they always put me under pressure to take the insurance option, which I refused. 

I now don’t use letting agents as they add their mark up to everything and, by and large, don’t offer good value. 

Good luck!

LegallyLandlord

i came across this article - seems similar to this situation

https://amp.theguardian.com/money/2022/dec/03/renters-forced-to-pay-hundreds-in-unethical-fees-to-secure-homes

Robbo66

If they are making an NDO a condition of the tenancy then report them as this contravenes the 2019 Tenants Fee Act and I would tell them that. They also cannot insist on contents insurance as this also contravenes the act.