Trading Standards - Estate Agent

Zazzle0316

We have been letting out a small property, since we moved out 15 years ago. We’ve always had good tenants and the most recent moved in around 2 years ago.
We use a Letting agent to manage the property and they take a percentage of the monthly rent to do that. 

 A few months ago I was checking my annual statement, and it looks like the Letting Agent have been adding on a random fee which they call a ‘premier service’ every couple of months or so. 

This amounts vary between £20-£30 each time it has been taken.
When we first set up the tenancy they added the fee on to the contract and I had to email them to take it off. They apologised and life went on, etc.
This isn’t a case of they forget to take it off. Over the last couple of years the fee has been added on 10 times amounting to over £200! Not every month but someone has been hitting the button and sticking it on every now and then.
People will say it’s my fault for not checking the statements regularly, but this is surely fraud, and who else are they doing this too.
They paid my money back which took weeks, but we had no apology.
Is this something I can report them to trading standards for fraudulent practice?
We are now in the process of selling the property and we have given notice to the agent.
 

Mark_d

Maybe the charge relates to when the EA had to answer the phone to you or your tenant.  What explanation do the EA have for this charge?
Do you think you have any responsibility towards yourself for checking statements?  i ask about all statements here - bank, credit card, phone bill etc.
I don't think we can claim fraudulent practice without understanding what the fee is for

eskbanker

Zazzle0316 said:

People will say it’s my fault for not checking the statements regularly, but this is surely fraud, and who else are they doing this too.
They paid my money back which took weeks, but we had no apology.
Is this something I can report them to trading standards for fraudulent practice?

You can report companies to Trading Standards (via CAB) but they're unlikely to act unless multiple others are also doing so.

Zazzle0316

@Mark_d The ‘premier service’ charge is an additional extra that you can add on to your contract to cover legal issues with tenants. So it’s an optional extra that I told them I didn’t want at the beginning of the tenancy. So it’s not as if the forgot to take it off. They have just added it on whenever they felt like it. 

Mark_d

Zazzle0316 said:

@Mark_d The ‘premier service’ charge is an additional extra that you can add on to your contract to cover legal issues with tenants. So it’s an optional extra that I told them I didn’t want at the beginning of the tenancy. So it’s not as if the forgot to take it off. They have just added it on whenever they felt like it. 

It's very odd how they've been adding these varying charges at random times.  But it's good that you got your money back without much of a wait.  Personally I'd just count myself lucky that I haven't ended up out of pocket - and I'd move on.