Are you ‘letting’ agents take more than your deposit?

I have had many bad experiences with lettings agents, too many to list, but now I am no longer renting so the fees just go to solicitors/loan companies instead.

I think it may be worth highlighting how letting agents screw their landlords for fees also. It’s taken me 5 months to get my property up north let out again and what with the extra “renovation” costs that just keep escalating, the letting “fee” is £235 and a marketing “fee” of £70. Then you have to pay for them to draw up to contracts, the same as they charge the tenant.

For landlords it didn’t used to matter as you property was appreciating. Nowadays the amount of fees mean that you are almost losing money. Hence the reason why I think in general, rents have gone up in recent years.

I recently moved into a new flat and, as expected, I was hit with quite a large upfront cost to be made prior to moving in to the property.

The letting agent for the property only presented us with the administration costs for letting as soon as we expressed an interest in putting down a holding deposit, in order to secure the property. These costs included an administration fee of £85+VAT per person and £70+VAT to draw up a copy & pasted tenancy agreement from the previous tenants who had occupied the flat. I will also be one of the unfortunate tenants who has to pay to ‘check out’ at when I leave.

We were actually offered 50% off the administration fee following some complications with the move, after the agent admitting that they make profit on these anyway.

Letting agents don’t seem to be much good at looking after properties either. Letting one older flat in Scotland, we as registered landlords get hit for agents’ marketing fees, then administration fees while the tenancy is going on, and have the property “inspected” “regularly”, but I’ve been present accidentally when one of these was going on, and heard about others from previous tenants. Perfunctory wouldn’t be the word for it (though the quick glance in each room probably confirmed there wasn’t a cannabis farm in situ). If the tenants underpay some months, who has to flag this up when we receive the agents’ statement, then wait for the agents to collect the shortfall they’d never noticed? The landlords. The tenants fail to keep the front garden tidy though it’s a responsibility in their lease, the factors for the building complain to us, but months go by with nothing getting done by the letting agent except more “inspections”, until after the tenants leave. After the tenants move out and we find water damage from unattended leaks, kitchen damage from broken doors etc, who has to get this fixed? The landlords. The agents are members of ARLA (a trade association) with quoted standards, but a joint complaint by previous tenants and landlord about a mistimed maintenance visit and invoice, got nowhere, the agents just took the money from the tenants deposit when they moved.

The Scottish Government is now, as part of deposit protection legislation, forcing letting agents to provide evidence of damage etc and, surprise surprise, the agents are now paying more attention to getting evidence of the initial state of the property, eg digital photos. They’re increasing their admin charges slightly to cover this…

Making agents be part of a regulated complaints procedure (rental services ombudsman?) sounds like a good start.

my letting agent are terrible too. they are incompetant, they lie and make up the most unbelievable stories, they break the law and think it doesnt apply to them and yes they screw EVERYBODY for as many ridiculous charges as they can. they did a whole heap of disgusting things to me and they do not treat tenants or landlords well.
why on earth are these people not properly regulated?
all the good landlords that treat tennants nicely have their properties tied up with (hogged by) agents, inflating the rents and meaning fewer private troublefree lets and everyone loses money because of this, except one party.. guess who!
i now want a private landlord or housing association property, i cant be dealing with those rats anymore.

my letting agents disgusting and very greedy.they are liar.they cheated me from the very beginning and try to treat me unfairly every now and then even though i’m a very good tenant and pay my rent on time.Few occasions they threatened me and served me two invalid section 21 notices when i did not agree with their unjustified rent increase and fees.they serve me notice on wrong date and via email and try to enforce that on me.I have direpair issues with as well.Now i’m thinking about to take legal actions against them.Me to simply don’t get it why this ridiculous, disgusting institutions are not regularized dare to harass people unlawfully.

My letting agents are greedy, rude disgusting people! When I complained about repairs (damp), they threatened me with eviction! I complained again because having asthma & a daughter that suffers from asthma also, I knew the damp was an issue. The agent then waited until I had a newborn baby (5 days old), then evicted me! So rather than get repairs done & keep a really good tennant who has been in the rpoerty for 3 years & never missed a rent payment etc, they decide to evict me & my children! The whole way the agent conducts themselves is wrong. speaking to me like I am beneath them just because I am a single parent. The should be some sort of law against agents/landlords so that good tennants are protected!

I’m afraid I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with lettings agents.

Most recently, I moved into a house in Kent using one of the main letting agents on the market. We expected some fees for credit checks and the like, but we were very surprised to find that we had to pay nearly £400 just for credit checks. On top of this, they wanted a £160 holding payment before we paid our deposit (which was 6 weeks rent). The reference checks took no time at all, and I certainly can’t imagine how it cost the letting agent nearly £400 to make them.

Since we’ve been living in the property, the agents have been next to useless. Within our first week, we submitted a list to them of problems we’d had with the property. Yet 4 weeks later, they hadn’t got back to us, and every time we tried to contact them – they told us our landlords were ‘uncontactable’ and that they didn’t have phones or emails where they’d moved to.

It turns out that that wasn’t true (as suspected) – the landlords rang me directly to discuss a few matters (as we were both so fed up of not being able to communicate through the agent). They confirmed that they’d been easy to contact and both had mobile phones, and that they replied to any communications sent to them. They simply hadn’t been sent any! Quite rightly they were furious – they’re paying their agents over £120 a month but they’re not sure what for.

We are in the process of trying to rent a property as the one we are currently in has been put on the market and we have to move out. We found a property that we liked but have been staggered to find that we are expected to pay an admin fee of £590 plus VAT! This is before a deposit of £2800 and the first month’s rent of £1800!
I cannot see how ‘admin costs’ can amount to £590 – seems appalling. I am refusing to pay out this amount of money but have been told that they won’t take the house of the rental market until we do so. So – I’m now looking for another property – unbelievable.