Renting a house, large admin fee, opinions?

B@Th*nG

B@Th*nG

B@Th*nG

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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6,889
Hi guys,

Am moving into a house with 2 others and have a query. The rent is £640, and they want that plus a £960 deposit - which is understandable, it's no problem to pay a bit more on the deposit as you get it back at the end of the day. The thing i don't much like is they've slapped a £350 administration fee on the property, is that normal? when i was getting student houses there wasn't this massive fee, and it's not like they've actually done very much and are, at best, pretty good at "forgetting" to return my calls.

Am i just unaware of this uber fee or is that asking a bit too much?

B@
 
Seems way too high. I think mine was around £30. Point it out to them and tell them what others charge. If they refuse then laugh in their face and find somewhere else.
 
that deposit seems way high as well, is that 960 split between 3? even then thats still £330 per person i wouldnt expect to pay more than £250 deposit and never before have I paid an administration fee on a rented property
 
Deposit seems a little high. I would expect it to be around one months rent. But the admin fee seems very high indeed.
 
Rich1988 said:
that deposit seems way high as well, is that 960 split between 3? even then thats still £330 per person i wouldnt expect to pay more than £250 deposit and never before have I paid an administration fee on a rented property
Click to expand...

The deposit is entirely normal, my deposit was £1013 on a £675pcm rental (1.5x rent is the norm) and one months rent up front.

The deposit on our new place was £1800 (£1200pcm rental). The standard £250 deposit pp is usually just a student thing.
 
The deposit seems fair.

A months and a half's rent which is what many agents/landlords ask for now. The fees are a bit high though. Christ, thats 2 weeks rent just to push some pens around.
 
they are making the deposits higher so people don't just not pay their last months rent then disappear after having duked on the living room carpet.


Fees are just Estate Agents lining thier pockets like the lazy money grabbing scum that ALL Estate agents are....
 
deposit looks normal, though you can possible argue that down to a months worth.

the admin charge will be for referencing and checks for all 2 of you and all sorts of other crap that agencies add on. nothing too out of the ordinary tbh.


Our 6 month rent is about to be renewed, the agency want £92 in admins fees as our share of the cost to renew!! I'll be on the phone to them tomorrow about that as it is a joke.
 
Our agency asked for £40 in admin fees for the renewal. They were a great agency to be honest - but we had to switch to a different agency. Only problem we had (which wasn't a problem) was that I forgot to get the carpets cleaned but they have arranged a company to do it for us ~£70 and I get ~£940 of my deposit back.

Never had to pay such an extortionate admin fee though, so you're right to question it.
 
Ask what the admin is for; I've never understood the logic here... the landlord is employing the agent, so he should pay the fee not the tenant IMO. Also, if the agents do are proper letting agent they will have all the necessary forms, ready printed etc so no expense there.

Deposit and advance rent I can unserstand but as I said, they are working for the landlord, not you, so thats who should pay their bills.
 
That is high mate. I recently had to pay slightly more which left a very sour taste indeed, considering other estate agents were asking for around £50. Me and my house mates were stuck between a rock and hard-place though as it was the only decent property we could find within the time-limit we had. I ****ing despise estate agents.
 
the problem we've got is we've paid a £200 non-returnable "retainer" as a gesture to secure the house, there was no mention of an admin fee and having only rented a couple of houses i wasn't expecting it to be so large (feel free to point and laugh). We're in a difficult position as if we back out we lose that money so they've got us by the short and curlies in that respect.

I'll do some research and call some of their other branches (the company is: Northwood UK) to see what charges they levy and then, armed and ready, i'll politely enquire as to why they're such bunch of robbing ****ing *****.

B@
 
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