Lettings Agents and Admin Fees

[jonny.rainbow]

Looking to rent a new place and I've just been informed of the agents £300 admin fee after I've already paid the security deposit!

How can these arsewipes justify £300?


Any letting agents on the board who could care to tell me what sort of admin is being done that constitutes £300?

 

[Aadam]

It's a joke. I got stung for a similar fee. You'll also find you get a fee when you come to renew the contract. All they do is print and post and that is worth £150 of administration fee's, really?

I would ask them for a FULL breakdown of the cost. Get them to mark each activity with the cost.

 

[Surrey_Albion]

Estate Agents seem to get obseen amount of money for basically looking after keys

 

[Gazwag]

They will also charge the landlord an "finders fee" as well - double the money for half the work

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

one letting agent wanted £200 for "referencing"..........including asking my (now former) employer for a reference

i know for a fact that my employer wasn't even contacted by them

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Estate Agents seem to get obseen amount of money for basically looking after keys

That money won't be for looking after the keys though. As someone who lets out a place, I pay the agents 8% pcm to manage it and the keys.

 

[spongy]

Just recently been in the same boat as you.

Got given 10 weeks notice so had to look for somewhere else, we only paid a month rent as deposit, then to get our new place had to stump up 6 weeks deposit, a months rent in advance and £400 admin fees.

That worked out at £2000.

Not an easy amount to find in 2 paydays I can assure you, had to borrow from my folks and get a crisis loan from the social to afford it otherwise would have been homeless

The admin fees for us consisted of 2 credit checks for me and my missus, the rest goes on drawing up contracts, sorting out utility bills and meter readings, contacting the council re council tax and inventory reports to assess the condition of the place and check for damage from previous tenants so you don't get stung for repairs you didn't cause.

It's a shit situation and its daylight robbery as far as I'm concerned.

I have a very bad credit rating so had to get a guarantor otherwise I would be rejected, so after stumping up the initial 400 they phoned me up and said my guarantor had to be credit checked and wanted another £80 to do it.

They got a few choice words (not swearing I might add as I wanted the place) and a sob story and they waivered the extra charge.

The annoying thing is that our rent is £750 a month, that's mortgage money, we just don't have the 30k needed as a deposit and its near on impoosible to save for one with rents being so high, its a no win situation, we are effectively buying someone else's property for them and it makes me

There should be rent caps to help us poor people out and help us get on the property ladder.

Rant over, for now.

 

[beorhthelm]

all the attention is on the banks, there's other industries that need a good kicking and Estate Agents is one. i think it was £30-50 when i rented last 6 years ago.

 

[The Wookiee]

As I have said before on here, try and find a property privately. Look on Gumtree Friday ad etc. You deal directly with the landlord and don't pay any fees !

 

[jonny.rainbow]

Estate Agents seem to get obseen amount of money for basically looking after keys

The joke with this one was when we went to view they didn't even HAVE the keys and we had to stand outside for an hour waiting for the tenant to come and let us in.

 

[jonny.rainbow]

As I have said before on here, try and find a property privately. Look on Gumtree Friday ad etc. You deal directly with the landlord and don't pay any fees !

Tried that.

Would be fine if I wanted to live in a badly painted box where hot running water was considered a luxury.

 

[strings]

Estate Agents seem to get obseen amount of money for basically looking after keys

Some don't even do that. I bought my first house earlier this year. After months of looking forward to walking through the door of our first house for the first time, it was ruined because we couldn't get in until a locksmith had broken into the property and changed the locks. My girlfriend is still upset that this moment was taken from her. The Estate agent basically said 'it isn't our problem if the previous owner didn't give us all the keys', the ex-owner blamed the estate agent. Leaving us with a house and no method of entry.

Shambles.

 

[nwgull]

It's bollocks. The agent charges the landlord upwards of £500 + VAT to market the property and do the AST contract and inventory. If the agent manages the property - this means that they hold a set of keys and do fcuk all else - then they also take an additional 8-10% of the monthly rent. There are no additional fees that should be payable to the tenant other than credit check/refs, which are done via an agency at the grand cost of around £30 per tenant.

I know this as I rent a flat out by putting an ad on rightmove (£40 via an online agency) and do all the 'admin' work myself. Standard tenancy agreements can be downloaded from legal websites for less than a fiver, and the credit check is processed via an online application. It really is so straightforward that I am almost tempted to set up an agency myself!

My advice would be to not pay this fee. It doesn't sound like you've signed anything that explicitly states you have to pay it, and if it's in their standard terms (small print) it could easily be argued as an unfair term (particularly for £400) if they were to threaten civil action (small claims court).

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Just recently been in the same boat as you.

Got given 10 weeks notice so had to look for somewhere else, we only paid a month rent as deposit, then to get our new place had to stump up 6 weeks deposit, a months rent in advance and £400 admin fees.

That worked out at £2000.

Not an easy amount to find in 2 paydays I can assure you, had to borrow from my folks and get a crisis loan from the social to afford it otherwise would have been homeless

The admin fees for us consisted of 2 credit checks for me and my missus, the rest goes on drawing up contracts, sorting out utility bills and meter readings, contacting the council re council tax and inventory reports to assess the condition of the place and check for damage from previous tenants so you don't get stung for repairs you didn't cause.

It's a shit situation and its daylight robbery as far as I'm concerned.

I have a very bad credit rating so had to get a guarantor otherwise I would be rejected, so after stumping up the initial 400 they phoned me up and said my guarantor had to be credit checked and wanted another £80 to do it.

They got a few choice words (not swearing I might add as I wanted the place) and a sob story and they waivered the extra charge.

The annoying thing is that our rent is £750 a month, that's mortgage money, we just don't have the 30k needed as a deposit and its near on impoosible to save for one with rents being so high, its a no win situation, we are effectively buying someone else's property for them and it makes me

There should be rent caps to help us poor people out and help us get on the property ladder.

Rant over, for now.

Oh dear...'very bad credit rating' & then you moan about the level of deposit required.....

 

[The Wookiee]

Tried that.

Would be fine if I wanted to live in a badly painted box where hot running water was considered a luxury.

Put an advert on Gumtree yourself, saying what type of property you are looking for, I did this and was inundated with enquiries. Remember landlords don't like paying agents either !

 

[reigate]

It's bollocks. The agent charges the landlord upwards of £500 + VAT to market the property and do the AST contract and inventory. If the agent manages the property - this means that they hold a set of keys and do fcuk all else - then they also take an additional 8-10% of the monthly rent. There are no additional fees that should be payable to the tenant other than credit check/refs, which are done via an agency at the grand cost of around £30 per tenant.
).

I have just let out my house, and all the agents I spoke to charge an approx £500 "finders fee" OR an 8% managament fee. They do not charge both. As i have opted for them to manage it, the only upfront cost I have is the inventory, which is optional, and I am free to use an inependant company for this.

As this is the 1st time I have a let a property, I have opted for the managed service, but don't really see this as good value long term. Would any of you landlords advise me managing it myself?

 

[spring hall convert]

Leaders want £60.00 from us to stay in our place for another year. This seems to consist of them sending us a letter.

 

[halbpro]

Tried that.

Would be fine if I wanted to live in a badly painted box where hot running water was considered a luxury.

I live in a privately rented place, it's lovely and far better than the place I had through an agency. Plus if something's wrong the landlord is normally around in 24 hours, no matter how minor. In my old place my window was stuck open for about 6 months because the agents were incapable of ringing the landlord.

 

[The Wookiee]

I have just done a search on Gumtree for properties to rent in Brighton. There are loads of adverts from private landlords and they don't look to shabby.

 

[Phat Baz 68]

Utter rip off !!
What they mean by "admin fees" is an office junior (school leaver normally) typing you a two sentence misspelled letter saying welcome to your new home come and collect your keys on Monday.