Estate Agent wants more money if I wish to stay on.

[croyde]

Hi all.

End of January will mean I have been in my first rental flat for a year and I have just noticed an email from the agent informing me that if I wish to stay on, I need to pay them £150 for admin costs.

Is this usual?

Seems a bloody cheek considering how much you get fleeced in fees when you first find a home to rent.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks.

[james12345]

It is fairly usual, sadly. They'll also be charging the landlord a similar amount as well.

Is there any reason why this couldn't move to a Periodic Tenancy? If you and the landlord are in agreement, there's no reason to draw up a new 12 month Assured Shorthold Tenancy.

All the details should be in the existing tenancy agreement, moving to a standard 1 month notice either way.

[LouD86]

I had the same when I used to rent. It was either £125 for another AST drawn up for 6 months, or leave it rolling. I left it rolling, which made moving out much easier further down the line

[dazwalsh]

Tell them to go feck themselves and let it go onto a periodic tenancy.

[croyde]

I do get on very well with my Landlady and have been a good tenant. Have kept the place clean, no parties and I tend to fix anything that has gone wrong so I haven't been hassling her every time a light bulb blows or a radiator needs bleeding.

I can understand the agent charging the landlord as they are collecting the rent and keeping the deposit etc but it just seems to be a con to charge the tenant.

I have emailed her to ask about this as well.

[croyde]

Periodic would suit me down to the ground as I don't want to be tied in after having done a year already.

[johnxjsc1985]

tell them to sing for it and withhold your last months rent against your deposit.

[markbigears]

maybe the landlord likes it that way?

[croyde]

So they can take the money from the deposit then? Thought that was for the landlord/lady.

Withholding the rent is not going to put me on good terms with my Landlady. I am pretty pissed off by the demand. So much so, that I'm tempted to shoot myself in the foot and leave.

Renting has not sat right with me as I have basically seen my savings eaten away in order to pay someone else's mortgage whilst I pay the mortgage on the house in which my ex-wife and kids live. The rents in SW London are eye-watering so it does fek me off when unexpected bills come in from greedy agents.

[markiii]

current rules on deposit protection make it a pain for landlords with periodic tenancy, hence most want another renewal

[whoami]

johnxjsc1985 said:

tell them to sing for it and withhold your last months rent against your deposit.

No, don't do that.

[blueg33]

Estate agents have to earn a living..............

Their overall fee levels will be a reflection of their costs. The market is competitive so it would be rare for them to charge more than they need to. Of course they could do away with the renewal fees and just charge more the first time.......

I have no special love for EA's, but they are businesses

[croyde]

I understand but it has been noticed that Agents are ripping off tenants with very high fees for taking on a rental when it's really a service for the landlords (Who are also charged)

The fees now have to be shown on the ads and due to this they have come down somewhat. Some were/are charging £500 just because you looked at a flat and said you wanted to rent it. Mine charged me £300 but surely making sure I'm a good tenant with good references with money in the bank is what the landlord is paying them to do?

[johnxjsc1985]

croyde said:

I understand but it has been noticed that Agents are ripping off tenants with very high fees for taking on a rental when it's really a service for the landlords (Who are also charged)

The fees now have to be shown on the ads and due to this they have come down somewhat. Some were/are charging £500 just because you looked at a flat and said you wanted to rent it. Mine charged me £300 but surely making sure I'm a good tenant with good references with money in the bank is what the landlord is paying them to do?

It is a while since I rented in London quite a while but go to the estate agent and the landlord and tell them you will move rather than pay or of course you could lye down and play dead like some suggest.
does the land lord want to lose a good tenant or maybe a private arrangement could be made.
Estate agents are the biggest chancers going

[Shaolin]

blueg33 said:

Estate agents have to earn a living..............

Can't help feeling that the word "earn" is erroneous in that sentence. They do what they can get away with, "earn" implies something of worth happens.

[randlemarcus]

Easy answer is to talk to the Landlady, and figure out if either of you want the security of tenancy that a new AST will bring. If so, whoever wants it, pays for it. If you are both happy to move to a Statutory Periodic, then you both write a polite note to the EA saying "Thanks, but happy to roll onto an SPT. Happy Christmas".

[Sir Bagalot]

LL here.

You seem to have a good relationship with the LL so email them directly raising concern about this charge and that you want to stay but aren't happy with the charge. Indeed tell them that you're going to CC them in your reply.

Email the agent, CCing the LL, saying you will not pay the £150 admin fee, indeed at the end of your current agreement you are happy to stay and enter into a Statutory Periodic Tenancy.

If they reply saying you must then remind them you don't and will enter into a SPT.

Yes they could evict you but no LL with a decent tenant will evict them for this issue.

[TheHound]

That fee is very excessive considering a similar, if not higher fee will also be charged to your Landlord.

Putting in place a new Agreement, negotiating terms etc does come at cost and an element of profit needs to be made. However, the amoun you have stated is taking the piss and is one of the reasons agents unfortunatley have a bad repuation.

Also the agent should have made you aware of the Tenancy Renewal Fee when you signed the original Terms of Business.

Just to give you and idea, we state we will charge tenants a £15 (inclusive of VAT) Renewal Fee but waive this if they a) agree to receive a completed copy of the new Agreement by e-mail and b) they allow us to erect a new Let Agreed board outside the property for 2 weeks. We then charge the Landlord a reasonable fee of £75 + VAT for the renewal, which covers our costs and gives us a small profit (we are a business at the end of the day).

[dazwalsh]

^^ your costs seem more reasonable on the tenant so bravo for that but still 75 quid+ vat charged on the landlord wouldn't sit right with me. Surely there its just an AST to fill out which takes minutes?

Even if you chauffeured the LL in to your office and sat him down with a cup of coffee and got him to sign the agreement in unicorn blood it wouldn't cost 75 quid.

I get that businesses need to make money it just seems like letting agents fleece people wherever possible purely because they can amid fierce demand and lack of
Regulation.

[TheHound]

dazwalsh said:

^^ your costs seem more reasonable on the tenant so bravo for that but still 75 quid+ vat charged on the landlord wouldn't sit right with me. Surely there its just an AST to fill out which takes minutes?

Even if you chauffeured the LL in to your office and sat him down with a cup of coffee and got him to sign the agreement in unicorn blood it wouldn't cost 75 quid.

I get that businesses need to make money it just seems like letting agents fleece people wherever possible purely because they can amid fierce demand and lack of
Regulation.

This is a common error people make when assuming a job only takes 5 minutes and there are no other costs involved. I'm not having a go at all, these type of assumptions get made across all types of industry.

But let me explain a bit further where cost/time are incurred putting in place a renewal;

-Speak with Landlord to make sure they wish to offer tenant renewal and discuss the market rent for property and the benefits of a new agreement. Sometimes we actually educate them in not seeking a rent increase because the market rent for that particular property hasn't moved on in the past 12 months.- This can take anywhere from a couple of minutes to half an hour.

- Once it is agreed that they wish to renew to their tenant, we write to the tenant offering them a formal renewal. Another 5 minutes plus possibly the ost of a stamp. Plus any time spent negotiating any new terms (inc rent) can be upto another 20 minutes

- Chasing the tenant for a response - I would say 50% of tenants need chasing after allowing 2/3 weeks for them to respond. Another 5 minutes (at least).

- Drawing up the new agreement and new Prescribed Information. Whilst we us a template, these are personalised documents for each Tenancy and we like to do thing properly (I have seen shockers from other agents that clearly just press a button and then print). Then a second person in the office to check this. This can take anywhere between 10-20 minutes.

- Liasing with tenant to come to the office to sign the new agreement- Some tenants answer their phones/respond to their e-mails etc but others again require chasing - anywhere between a minute and 5.

-Printing a 24 page agreement comes at a cost

- The appointment in the office when the tenant comes to sign- anywhere between 5 mins and 30 mins

- Processing the agreement i.e updating systems, scanning, sending out to both parties, issuing invoice etc - another 10 minutes.

This is before any overheads including staff wages, which obviously need to be covered, are taken into account.

Now hopefully you can appreciate this can actually take up quite a bit of a time to do a "5 minutes job". So as I said in my previous post we only make a small profit of the £75 renewal fee charged.

I do agree that the industry does need to be regulated better as there are lots of rogues out there unfortunatley. However we as a business are members of several industry bodies and as such have to commit to their strict codes of practise, which are always adhered to.

Edited by TheHound on Saturday 20th December 07:50