Ban on Tenant Letting Fees to go Ahead

I assume landlords are just going to increase rent per month to cover any fees they have to pay themselves. Surely the renters have the potential to be worse off?

When I rented 6 years ago, I think my fees were £200 or so.
 
In a market where there's more demand than supply, the landlords hold the power. They've got much more leverage to shop around for the best deal than tenants do.
 
I wonder how this will all shake down.
Assuming its all tenant fees being excluded, then landlords will start to get a bit pissy if they are charged fees for poor tenants who fail vetting.

Personally i think the tenants should be charged, but restrict by law the fees to actual costs plus a fixed amount for providing the service.
Its not a lot at the end of the day, mainly just checking some figures, writing a few letters, running a credit check. Maybe something like actual costs plus £75, £100 in London.
Actual costs being limited to outside specialists, so credit check fees is about all I could see they actually incur.
 
The landlords with only a handful of properties or less will likely look into private letting their property with any luck. Dealing with estate agents is not a positive experience.
 
if they roll it into rents, its not so bad I dont think

it was the unexpected nature of fees that annoyed me,
I would budget my month and then the agent could bascially at any point make up a fee, with a random number and try and charge you it

charging £60 for a renewal of a document they downloaded from the internet for free, wrote your name on, and changed the date on is nothing other than BS
 
This might drive more landlords to become private landlords instead of going through an estate/letting agent - which could be problematic, as supposedly the agents act as a bit of protection for the tenants. Though the amount of fees these agencies request is mad, checkin checkout, inventory, certificates (gas/electricity), and a whole stack of others. Seems like a good cottage industry!
 
Em3bbs said:
Well if you read the article it explains that landlords will have to pay it instead. Which of course means they'll just put the rent up to cover it.
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yeah but what about fees for credit checks and such like, will they be banned and if not will they have a limit.
As always it comes down to the wording.
 
Em3bbs said:
Well if you read the article it explains that landlords will have to pay it instead. Which of course means they'll just put the rent up to cover it.
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Not true. If you look what happened in Scotland rents did not rise at all.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/nov/26/banning-letting-fees-higher-rents-tenants-ask-experts

Funnily enough during the 'campaign' for this (that link is old), the only people to say it will lead to rent rises on that page were two estate agents, the Residential Landlords Association and the now-no-longer-Housing-Minister MP Gavin Barwell. Go figure.

This is a very positive step. Landlords are the agent's customers and they are the ones who should pay for the service.
 
Rent may not have risen in Scotland, but trust me, if the market is desperate enough, the landlord will illegally ask for costs regardless and the tenant will take the shafting because they have nowhere else to go in retrospect.
 
Depends how much competition there is agency wise and how much landlords have the ability to shop around and can be bothered to.
 
About time. I've had friends who either had the option of rent increases from landlords or the hassle of finding a new property then paying the letting agent for the privilege of using them. Hopefully this will bring some stability as the cost for the landlord to find new residents should put off any unnecessary rent rises.
 
Semple said:
Surely that's a good thing!

It means the duff letting agents will start losing business because they can't be bothered to do their job properly.
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But thats the problem!

If a poor tenant attempts to get a property they are going to get rejected for they loose the money. Rightly so for wasting peoples time.
If these fees have to be paid by the landlord any old muppet can apply, they will only get found out later on and the landlord will pay the bill. The muppet walks away with no loss.
You wont know they aren't capable of getting the let (say salary is too low) until you do the checks and the agent has incurred the fees.
 
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