Renting - Letting Agent Fees - Advice On Haggling

sare^baw's

sare^baw's

sare^baw's

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I recently moved to England from Scotland for work. I am living temporarily with my girlfriend at the moment. My intention is to find a place to rent now that the new job s going great.

In Scotland its illegal to charge tenants these fee's for applying and moving into a rented property, so its a real shock to see what letting agents are asking for in England. Im in Coventry.

Im aware these fee's are negotiable if you haggle. I also want to offer less for a property's rent that im likely to view on Friday. Its been advertised for 3 weeks now. How is best to go about this. Should i view the property first, show an interest and then negotiate on the fee's and see if the landlord will accept less than the asking £825. Im applying myself so they said the fee's are £180 to apply and then £200 when moving in, £380 total, for doing a few checks :eek:

So please give me any tips on getting as good a deal as possible.

I would like to just rent direct from a landlord but the type of detached property im looking for, there are not any available on the likes of Gumtree.
 
As a landlord myself I can only speak with experience on the issue of negotiating rent. Your method is probably the best way. If you have clean references, and are potentially looking at a long term let ( will extend after 12 months) you will be more attractive to a landlord. I have negotiated with tenants before despite having other prospectives offering to pay me more than the asking price because I felt they were a safer option. My priorities are someone not destroying my property followed by reliable and zero drama tenants.

In respect of renting directly from a landlord despite the £ benefit of cutting the agent out I would never consider it. At the moment now it's not an option because I live outside the UK but even when I did live I used them. I don't want tenants calling me if something needs fixing. They also have the experience and the time to ensure legalities are carried out ( contract and various H&S checks) and also in my experience they do a damn good inventory. My free time is too valuable for me to compromise, so I pay for the convenience.
 
You're on the wrong side of the supply/demand equation to haggle surely? Round here you view a house with 20 other people apply and cross your fingers they chose you, then bend over for the colossal fees.
 
£825 in Cov :eek:

We pay £700 for a 3 floor, 4 bed place with a massive garden in a "nice" area of Wolves not far from town and I can't imagine the rental market is that different in Cov.
 
When I last moved into a rented property 7 odd years ago, I liked the place and told the estate agents I'd like to take the property but would the landlord accept x amount?

I said I was looking for somewhere long term and would be as good as gold :D The landlord was there at the time of the viewing putting the finishing touches on the place, he said we seemed like a nice couple and accepted our offer.

So my advice would be go and view the place, if the landlord is there make a good first impression on them and they will be more likely to consider an offer of lower rent.
 
I think it'd be hard to negotiate the fees with the letting agent being that they have absolutely no reason to. And that they're the inbred spawn of Satan himself. But negotiating with the landlord is always possible, just depends on him/her. If they're all about the cash then you'll probably find out later on down the road that they're a horrible landlord anyway.

Oh and http://www.generationrent.org/ban_fees whilst we're here. :)
 
:o. How big is the place? Shouldn't cost too much in Coventry. I rent in Dorridge and it's 700 for a 1.5 bed flat (in an expensive area).

Also FYI Andrew grant lettings are pretty terrible.
 
£825 in Coventry isn't that unreasonable,

Is it a 3 bed house? If so - that's about the going rate (or slightly less, as I paid that amount 7 years ago) if it's in a student area.
 
You won't negotiate the fee, your only option is to find another house, with a different agent (or even the same house under a different agent - I've seen the same place advertised elsewhere before) who have lower fees.

tbh if you intend on staying a while I'd take the hit on the fee but look very closely at the renewal fee. Ignore any talk of going onto a monthly periodic, no agent ever lets you do that and would rather get you out and re-advertise (which gets them more fees from both landlord and tenant).

The best imo is to find the agents with lowest fees, and only view houses that the agent is only advertising/checking and not managing. This way your relationship after the first month is with the landlord and you will almost certainly go onto periodic with no extra fees in future.
 
As Dave M said you will struggle to get any sort of negotiation on the fee but letting agents costs do vary quite a bit so you may well find the same property listed by a couple of companies.

We saved about £350 in fees by using a different agent and got a small reduction in rent by comparing nearby properties.

The cheaper agency was also a lot nicer to deal with so win-win although still ridiculously expensive for what they do.
 
We negotiated £50 reduction in rental when finding a flat in Manchester. It was originally up for £575 but I said we would take a 12 month lease if they would do it for £525.

They accepted, we moved in, everyone was happy.
 
Thanks for all the replies everyone. I read with much interest.;)

I also rented out my last house that i owned in Ayrshire Scotland, it was advertised at the going rate of £600, i got interest very quickly from nice older tenants and i accepted their offer of £550. After 6 months they signed up for another year and they agreed with the £575 i requested for that further 12 months. I would be appalled if i knew that my letting agent was charging ludicrous fee's. I would also worry it might put people off. Im baffled why landlords go with letting agents who have these silly fee's.

Im at Coventry just now and believe it or not rent is expensive here, im comparing to Scotland and Glasgow or Ayrshire, especially the city centre and the quality of accommodation is poor also, when you see the pics of the inside, so many poor looking houses that i would not touch with a barge pole.

The house im looking at is just outside of Rugby, its 3 bedrooms although im the only occupant, i am earning good money just now so i decided to go for a detached house, these are not cheap and tend to be at least £800. I cant say if ill stay longer than 6 months or not but there is no need to mention this to the letting agent. The fee's are £380 as i said, another i called about is £315. So as expected, they know they can all charge the rip off fee's and get away with it.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-43632666.html

I have been treated very badly by letting agents i rented off of in Glasgow, so i have a tendency to hate them by default, so the thought of paying any rip off fee is going to be painful even if i can afford it.
 
I have successfully negotiated a reduction in fees for extension of contracts and also when my now wife moved in. The initial fees are pretty much stuck fast unfortunately. Put an offer in on the rent - this is absolutely allowed. All they can say is no!
 
sare^baw's said:
The house im looking at is just outside of Rugby, its 3 bedrooms although im the only occupant, i am earning good money just now so i decided to go for a detached house, these are not cheap and tend to be at least £800. I cant say if ill stay longer than 6 months or not but there is no need to mention this to the letting agent. The fee's are £380 as i said, another i called about is £315. So as expected, they know they can all charge the rip off fee's and get away with it.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-43632666.html

I have been treated very badly by letting agents i rented off of in Glasgow, so i have a tendency to hate them by default, so the thought of paying any rip off fee is going to be painful even if i can afford it.
Click to expand...

Long Lawford commands a premium being on the nicer side of Rugby, same with Dunchurch. Look closer to the motorway, M6 J1 area, there is some lovely stuff up here. We rent a 4 bedroom at £695/month, quiet cul-de-sac, literal edge of Rugby, we're the last line of houses then just green :)
 
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