- Jul 17, 2003
- 20,939
Chancellor amongst many other things today is set to ban Letting Agents charging fees to tenants. That's gonna piss the Agents off! Lol
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Autumn Statement-Letting Agents Fees
- Thread starter Chicken Run
- Start date
Wont they just pass them onto the landlords who will increase rents to cover their higher fees
- Jul 17, 2003
- 20,939
- Thread starter
- #3
I'm sure they will but it's a start and I guess the rents within reason have to be attractive! I speak with experience as a tenant myself!
Lol? The same fees will have to be paid in the end, wonder where the final bill will end up?
Got an engineer coming to ours in the next week or so to do a Gas Safe inspection. We have not asked for it, just a legal requirement, but a good thing that does have to be paid for by someone, as does an electrical inspection. It feels so much better knowing that the landlord is paying for it rather than me
nwgull
Well-known member
Good. Letting agents are scumbags and it's easy for landlords to avoid using them. I used to rent my flat, and the money I saved myself AND my tenants by not using an agent to do some very straightforward admin was significant.
Marty___Mcfly
I see your wicked plan - I’m a junglist.
- Sep 14, 2011
- 2,251
Apparently fees have been banned in Scotland for a while and have not resulted in rent increases. Maybe the Agents charge the landlords reasonable fees because they want their business.
They are probably more prone to ripping off tenants as they are more of a 'captive market', i.e. They have found a specific property they want to rent, and they have no choice of Agent as the Agent is picked by the Landlord.
Even if rents do go up to cover Landlord costs it will just make the rents a fair representation of the overall cost of renting the property.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
They are probably more prone to ripping off tenants as they are more of a 'captive market', i.e. They have found a specific property they want to rent, and they have no choice of Agent as the Agent is picked by the Landlord.
Even if rents do go up to cover Landlord costs it will just make the rents a fair representation of the overall cost of renting the property.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
mikeyjh
Well-known member
This does help tenants - At the moment, it's completely anti competitive. Tenant looks for the right house at the right rental, in most cases they aren't going to be looking through specific agents. I, as a landlord, can negotiate the fees and rates that I pay but the tenant cannot, it's not fair. Bloody hell, I think I'm just agreeing with something that the tories are doing.
Fitzcarraldo
Well-known member
- Nov 12, 2010
- 977
Letting Agents are pigs. When we renewed our contract at the end of last year, £15 increase in rent, same contract, we were charged a £150 (plus VAT) administrative fee for drawing up a new contract.
Justice
Dangerous Idiot
I've always found the term landlord to be offensive, for some reason in this country renters might as well be labelled losers the way they are sometimes treated.
n1 gull
Well-known member
It has to be a good idea. It will at least help with the massive upfront fees
mikeyjh
Well-known member
Was it a new contract just to reflect the increase in rent? Or for a new fixed term renewal? Either way, it's outrageous but particularly in the former instance - We want to put your rent up £15 a month, and we'd like to charge you for the privilege. +VAT of course. That will be a form generated contract that probably takes 20 mins max to prepare print and send.
mikeyjh
Well-known member
There's no doubt that it would have some upward pressure on rent but not to the full extent of the charges, you'd expect the cost to spread over rent, agents fees and landlord income.
Seems fair enough.
beorhthelm
A. Virgo, Football Genius
- Jul 21, 2003
- 36,461
about time too. in any other industry these admin fees are the cost of doing business and just rolled into the prices, and the company looks to minimise them. £150 to renew a contract, which cant cost them more than £10 in time and materials. when i rented we had a fee for credit check (about £20) and one for the inventory company (about £30) which was fair enough. worse case, fees get blended across the year, but most likely Landlords will shop around for agents with the lower fees as they are in a position to do so.
Ernest
Stupid IDIOT
Nice to see the Tories pinching something out of the 2015 Labour manifesto
Return of the Rev
Well-known member
The decent ones won't.
- Jul 17, 2003
- 20,939
- Thread starter
- #17
Quite right too, the Labour Party have some fantastic social policies it's just the collection of buffoons who present them that insure all they are are ideas!
Gazwag
5 millionth post poster
Lol? The same fees will have to be paid in the end, wonder where the final bill will end up?
Got an engineer coming to ours in the next week or so to do a Gas Safe inspection. We have not asked for it, just a legal requirement, but a good thing that does have to be paid for by someone, as does an electrical inspection. It feels so much better knowing that the landlord is paying for it rather than me
Is it not a good idea that these inspections are mandatory, better than dying in your sleep due to a faulty boiler that the landlord never serviced isn't it? People who own houses get their boilers serviced and have to pay for it.
And charging for a reference is a real piss take.
- Aug 8, 2005
- 27,733
Exactly this. It's what has happened in Scotland. Tenants have ultimately ended up paying increased rent leading to less visibility as to what they are paying for.