Letting Agency Stole Our Money!

sunama · 21 May 2008 at 17:54

Heofz said:
So what they're saying is that they will assume you will damage the property and take money from you whether you actually damage the property or not. So in essence what they've told you is "we can't be bothered to use DPS, so we're just going to take a sizeable chunk of your deposit money and simply keep it instead" Is that the jist of it?

Unofficially, that is exactly what they are saying/doing. Normally, they expect to get money from deposits, by fair means or foul. They now believe that with the DPS, this will prevent them from "embessling" money from innocent tennants. Hence, they bring in the fixed admin charge that tennants must pay, if they wish to rent the unit. This allows them to continue making extra money.

HOWEVER, officially, they have abolished the deposit system. By coincidence, they have also decided introduce a fixed admin fee.

There is absolutely no way to fight against this type of system. They are just being creative, which as a business, they are totally entitled to do.

Heofz · 21 May 2008 at 18:25

This is true, however the whole point of a security deposit is to prevent the landlord with security cash in case the tenant does something to the property that involves needing cash for repair/replacement. So unfortunately this which I acknowledge is true:

sunama said:
Normally, they expect to get money from deposits, by fair means or foul.

^ is fundamentally immoral. Letting agents should be making their money from fees they charge their clients, and that is it. "Fair means" or "foul means" still involves the letting agents helping themselves to a chunk of a security deposit, as any money taken from the security deposit is supposed to pay for the repairs/replacements. Why they think they are entitled to a profit I have no idea, and they have NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to take anything on top of what it costs to restore the actual property. Any admin fees incurred in doing so would be covered by the slice of the weekly rent they will be getting off the landlord.

Unfortunately we as a society have allowed this embezzling to happen for far too long so letting agents now think they are entitled to what they regard as "casual embezzlement".

It is becoming more and more clear to me that this is and has been happening on a national scale. Watchdog time?

I mean sure they're allowed to be creative, but what really makes me laugh is the fact that they instantly introduce this compulsory added admin fee when the government toughens up its laws on illegal deposit embezzling, i.e. In order to maintain the same profit levels, they are pretty blatantly admitting to the public that they need to replace all the money they've been illegally receiving all this time with something different but legal; now that the DPS has ruined their scamming activities.

E.g:
So lets say the security deposit they initially were going to let you use was £500, but since DPS was introduced they have a new fixed non-refundable admin fee of £250 for the same property, which previously was £0. That's like saying "yeah we used to illegally take 50% of every deposit before the DPS came in, but now we have to make up for it by just demanding the same money off the tenant at the beginning"

sunama · 21 May 2008 at 18:37

Its immoral to wrongfully embezzle the money handed over by the tennant. However, I dont feel this is the case if a business introduces an admin charge (or any other charge for that matter). They are a business and have every right to maximise their profit. As long as tennants are happy to pay the admin fee, up front, I cant see anything wrong with that.

Tennants have the right to shop around and look for a landlord who doesnt charge any admin fees.

Heofz · 21 May 2008 at 18:46

sunama said:
Its immoral to wrongfully embezzle the money handed over by the tennant. However, I dont feel this is the case if a business introduces an admin charge (or any other charge for that matter). They are a business and have every right to maximise their profit. As long as tennants are happy to pay the admin fee, up front, I cant see anything wrong with that.

Tennants have the right to shop around and look for a landlord who doesnt charge any admin fees.

Oh I totally agree with this sentiment, dont get me wrong. But when one of these fees are introduced instantly as the DPS comes in, and these fees are not a small increment but a suddenly huge chunk of cash to be paid that came out of nowhere, you just know why they did it