Estate Agents Letting/Rental Admin Fees!!

Gavinc1978

Hi
Just wanted to check if there was anything I could do about my esate agent given me a £40 bill every six months for them to resend my Rental agreement. I have been renting my property for nearly a year (July) and just before Christmas I was sent a bill for £38 for them to send me out a new contract for the next six months?? I have tried when I first rented the property and also again when this bill appeared 5 months later to have a 12 month contract of a rolling contract but they won't do it, saying its not available??
I have rented many apartments over the last few years and this is the only time that I have come in conection with anything like this, also we was not told when we first took out the contract about this £38 every six months, and it wasn't stated in our contract??
So in a home that we can finally call "home" (after loads of dodgy places and landlords) we have to pay this admin fee every six months and CANNOT sign a 12 mth contract, when we wants to stay?????

Do you have any information for me, as this is really starting to get on my nervous!!

geordie_joe

You should post this on the house buying and renting board, but I'm sure Browntoa will move it for you.

IMO you are stuck with it. It doesn't matter that it is not in the contract as the charge is for drawing up a new contract every six months.

All letting agents can charge this, but some don't. I was with a letting agent for 9.5 years and only ever had three six month rental agreements with them.

They never bothered sending me new ones!

Browntoa

duly moved for you

paintpot

In my experience, unless it is in a tenant's contract, it is the landlord who pays for the contract renewal not the tenant and furthermore, if it is not in your contract then I do not see how they can charge it to you as all costs should be agreed up front in the contract.

Alot of landlords do not like 12 month contracts for a variety of reasons, mainly because if a tenant starts to cause problems it makes it more difficult to evict them, or at least can take longer so 6 months are quite normal. However, I don't charge my tenants for the privilege. As for the rolling contract i.e the statutory periodic tenancy, not being "available" that is total rubbish. It may not be the preference of the landlord but it is certainly available. I would tell the agent they need to demonstrate contractually that you are required to pay this fee every six months and that if they can't you will refuse to sign the next 6 month contract which means it automatically rolls onto a periodic and they would have to go through the process of evicting you. The agent cannot make any decisions without the say so of the landlord and the landlord is not going to want to lose a reliable rent paying tenant over £38 every six months. Do you have a good relationship and/or the contact number of your landlord, you could always have a chat with them about it? They may or may not be aware of the issue.

wileycat

We have this we our current landlord, he is unwilling to go onto a rolling contract after the initial contract and insists on signing new 6/12 month leases each time.
However he does go 50:50 on the cost with us for each contract fees, we pay about £52 I think, the estate agent we're with has hideous fees.

50plusabit

The only reason for the agent or landlord to give a new 6mth contract is to tie the tenant in for another 6mths, or to make money. You are the client, if you want a longer contract tell them, or let it carry over to a periodic then that is fine. If they do not agree, then move your property and tenant to an agent who does.

tbs624

50plusabit wrote: »

. If they do not agree, then move your property and tenant to an agent who does.

I think the OP is the Tenant here, so that wouldn't be an option

tbs624

You're entitled to have the name and address of your LL - the LA has to give you this info within 21 days if you ask for it. If you've been a good tenant, a LL won't want to lose you because of the LA's dubious admin charges (as Paintpot has said). Contact the LL direct and explain that you'd prefer to sign up for a 12 month AST - it may be that s/he'd prefer that too.

You may want to add you name to the list here : http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/lettingfees/ The petition was set up by another MSE-er, and as the Govt is currently looking at the residential property market it's a good time for people to voice their dissatisfaction with LAs and their "admin" charges.