Ban on Tenant Letting Fees to go Ahead

Is the deposit not returned to you or used to pay your rent?
Yes but due to ever increasing rents the 6 week's worth is always a lot more a few years down the line when you move.. An 'old' deposit would rarely cover a 'new' one..
 
I completely understand the government's plan to restrict the size of the deposit to a month, when I rented, finding 6 weeks worth of rent was not easy!. But....

In one of my properties in Hertfordshire recently the tenants decided to move out a month early before their AST was due to end. They cancelled their standing order and refused to pay what their documentation told them to.

My letting agent currently holds 5 weeks worth of rent with a TDS, so easy right? Just cover the rental loss with their deposit. However during the last 3 months of their tenancy (pretty much immediately after the last inspection)the tenants had ripped down the blinds, the curtain poles, damaged the flooring and damaged one of my kitchen units. Total cost to fix? I am not going to get much change from 1000GBP. So yeah ....I am out of pocket.

Wear and tear is a perfectly acceptable cost to suck up, but negligence?

I try to look at this in a balanced way. These tenants have been with me for three years, and their contributions to my capital repayments and house value price much more than compensates. But as mentioned, my gain from being a landlord isnt in cash flow.
 
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.

That may still be good. One of the big barriers to people trying to rent is getting together the initial enormous sum of money which used to be deposit and first month's rent in advance, but these days is more often deposit + 1+ months rent in advance + first month + very large agents fees of £400+. £400+ for doing a basic credit check and reading a couple of brief references obviously upsets a lot of people who are struggling to get together even the deposit and the initial rent.
 
If I was a landlord I would expect my letting agent to tell me they have someone suitable for the property and their references check out, total cost is £x including search fees.

If my letting agent calls up and says "we had 3 families interested in your property but 2 of them failed credit checks, you owe us £x *3 to go ahead" I'd be telling them to get stuffed. I would expect landlords would get charged a single search fee and the ones who fail checks would be paid for out of an increase in the regular monthly fee.

This would also provide incentive to the agent to process applicants that they knew weren't serious or would fail the checks. A flat fee and risk shouldered by the agents is probably best.
 
Rents will not rise, they are set at what the market will take

Which is also based on supply. This will increase landlord's costs (not very much as they will finally shop around) and so some will pull out reducing supply. Zero fees also mean tenants can afford to pay more in rent. So demand for rental properties may also increase in a much more friendly environment of lower fees.

Rental prices will therefore adjust. Probably not by much though and letting agents will also be unable to squeeze money out of tenants. So end result will be good.
 
This would also provide incentive to the agent to process applicants that they knew (felt) weren't serious or would (Might) fail the checks. A flat fee and risk shouldered by the agents is probably best.

Hmmn, I can see a potential can of worms situation here...

Hmmn, He's a bit Brown or She has an Irish name, etc, etc. No point in wasting money on checking them out if it is likley to eat into our profits :/
 
I rent out my property privately. Didn't charge any fees, or even take a deposit...

Fees are a nonsense notion, about time they were banned.
 
I've rented since I was 18 ... Lived in 5 different houses...and all of them have been the worst experience ever.

1 months + deposit + agency fees per person can put it into thousands before you even move it. I swear these checks cost the agent more in the region of £30.

The flat that I was in first had storage heaters that were awful. All the walls got damp and was horrible to live in. I moved out and the landlord blamed it on me because I apparently didn't air out the rooms.

Because of the dampness I moved out but I didn't wanna pay agency fees again so found somewhere private. Found one on gumtree. Told them I was interested. Went to view the house. They said that they require a bigger deposit because 3 of us were moving in.... And it's only a small house. I was like.... But 3 people live here now... And she said yes but ones a child.... I mean really??

Last landlord was fine but when it came to moving out big arguments started to happen when I asked for my deposit back. House was left in perfect condition and someone moved in the day after we left. I don't want to get Into it but he called my partner lots of racist things and threatened to smash up our new house that we had just bought.

All in all... I'm glad I'm done with renting. Been living in my home for a few months. I may live in a less desireable area, the house needs a lot doing (plastering, carpets, fixing doors), and I've skinted myself every penny saving for that deposit. I have a sofa on a concrete floor downstairs and a bed / TV upstairs and a few kitchen items. Reckon I'll be living like this for a year before i can start actually doing what needs to be done. Still beats renting.
 
So you're saying one of the few sources of employment in your area dussapearibg couldn't hurt?
I expect estate agents employ <0.000001% of people in Cornwall. Over-dramatise much?

You have to realise that high streets are almost totally disused now in many small towns. Hence why all the stores closed and we're left with nothing but gambling shops, charity shops, estate agents and solicitors. Plus the odd Costa Coffee ;)

Nobody would care if all the estate agents closed their shops and went online only.
 
Holy thread resurrection!

I was looking around for somewhere to move to earlier, I looked at a decent house to find it had agent fees of £650 applied (just for the referencing!) then I remembered this whole admin fee ban and wondered when it's actually coming into force - well, it comes into force this Saturday!

I also wondered why there's been a sudden surge in the amount of letting agents offering 'no-deposit' schemes, it looks as though this is their way of getting around the loss of revenue - instead charge a monthly amount of money for the deposit which has a fee attached.
 
Landlords will just add the fees onto monthly cost, watch rent go up now for all rented properties.

What I don't get is that it's the landlords/landladys that are ment to be paying the fee to the agent not the tenant to the agents.
 
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Landlords will just add the fees onto monthly cost, watch rent go up now for all rented properties.
Except it wont. I'll direct you to my post on page 1. There's no evidence to suggest rents will rise, it's just scaremongering by lettings agents/landlords when they were arguing against the ban.
 
Holy thread resurrection!

I was looking around for somewhere to move to earlier, I looked at a decent house to find it had agent fees of £650 applied (just for the referencing!) then I remembered this whole admin fee ban and wondered when it's actually coming into force - well, it comes into force this Saturday!

I also wondered why there's been a sudden surge in the amount of letting agents offering 'no-deposit' schemes, it looks as though this is their way of getting around the loss of revenue - instead charge a monthly amount of money for the deposit which has a fee attached.

Yikes...

That is actually disgusting tbh.... I paid like 50 quid "fees" when I moved into my place years ago....for credit checks + referencing etc.

Absolutely disgraceful.
 
Yikes...

That is actually disgusting tbh.... I paid like 50 quid "fees" when I moved into my place years ago....for credit checks + referencing etc.

Absolutely disgraceful.

Yeah it is disgraceful, in my opinion the ban is the result of their own stupid fault.

Don't get me wrong - free is great, I'm not going to argue with £0 fees, however if the fees were reasonable and modest, eg; £20-50 for the referencing and contract to be setup, I'd have no problem paying that personally. But they've been allowed to take the **** for years now, borderline wide-boy agents such as Foxtons charging £600-700 a go and even more, just for a copy and paste contract and some referencing that costs £5.... They have nobody other than themselves and their own greed to blame, for the legislation coming into force.

There's a lot of salty tears coming out of the letting agent sector right now, however it just makes me feel like playing the worlds smallest violin.
 
Engerland needs to just emulate Scoterland rent system already.

Wtf is even paying to secure your own deposit? Why is that legal? ******* hell.

You can get right to appeal rent via an independent review and there’s no official fees except the scummy landlords you deal with to get the most sought after flats. Truly a mesmerising system.
 
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