Soldato
- Joined
- 4 Aug 2007
- Posts
- 22,433
- Location
- Wilds of suffolk
Admitting to being a letting agent on here is pretty brave. Well admitting that anywhere is pretty brave(If that's what you mean)
The problem is that as I wrote above, why would a landlords first instinct be to pass on the costs? That's not the way business works. If your supplier (i.e. the letting agent) is charging you too much or suddenly raises your rates, most people wouldn't accept that and pass it onto their customer. That's business suicide. You go back to your supplier and either threaten to leave unless they lower their rates, or just simply leave. Like I said, we're not exactly short of letting agents so the easiest solution for a landlord is to change agent or strong-arm them into lower their fees. It's obvious. Nobody with any common sense will just willy-nilly pass business costs onto their customers.
I'm not a letting agent, no idea how you make that assupmtion, I'm an accountant lol.
The reason a landlords first instinct would be that is because its the simplest solution for them. People are inherently lazy.
Assuming they fail to find any valid tenants they may well look at what they need to do to remedy that situation, but to suggest their first port of call would be to look to reduce that bill sounds more like wishful thinking than likely outcome.
If the market generally decides to pass on fees then the market has a new standard price for that property.
They may well look at it in order to reduce their costs, what exactly they propose to pass to the tenants doesn't have to bear any resemblance to the costs they incur, as it doesn't now with their other costs.
Will this become a valid deductable expense, I would assume it would. HMRC may look to interpret differently.
Rental costs are predominantly market related, if the market price is X then thats within reason what most people will charge. If the market price needs to go up because costs have gone up then the expectation is that will at least be attempted to be passed on. I see enough letters from vendors saying their costs have gone up so they are putting their prices up to know this
Of course there can be some negotiation at that time, but sometimes the answer is a simple no, look for a new vendor if you think you can get it cheaper.Whilst in the rental market demand continues to exceed supply you can only assume an increase in rents (as happens every year) will just happen.
Simply regulating the fees would be far more effective.
The problem stems from the sheer volume of rentals and the churn that allows rental agencies to assist in prices going up. The more they go up, the more they get in fees.
I know someone who rents out a house, every year the agency comes to him and suggests a new rental price "taking into account market conditions", he says yes, and the agent implements the rise.
They are making the market, pushing up the prices, and the rest follow. Whilst demand remains high and properties move quickly then thats not going to change, until people stop renting.
