When Will Estate Agents Fees be Legislated?

[John145]

So, I’ve owned my own home for a number of years now and back when I was at Uni I worked part time at an estate agents (10-12 years ago).

Now we are moving back to the UK after being in Germany for 18 months (no fees for renters) we have decided to rent in the new area for a couple of years to see how everything settles.

With that bit of backstory hopefully there’s a bit more weight to my opinion that Estate Agents fees for renters are completely ludicrous!

We have found several properties we like (East Anglia) and all estate agents are quoting similar levels:

Admin - £210
References - £96 per person over 18
Inventory - £120

And... something completely bizarre, a deposit waiver fee! This is about £200 and is a none refundable fee so you don't need to pay a deposit but the LL could still charge you money for any damages?! This is optional as you can pay a deposit instead.

Minimum fees payable for the EA is £522.

What the absolute fk? When I was an EA we were charging £20 per person who was paying the rent.

Passport copy? Done
Credit check? Done
Reference check? Done
Contract? Done

How can this work which takes about 1 working hour cost £500+?

It’s a complete con and it’s clear this industry is totally unfit for self regulation.

[John145]

Slagathore said:

Fees have already been banned?

Comes in to effect in June.

Has this law fully passed now? All I can see online is that it is on it’s 3rd reading?

Useful Sunday morning NP&E rant! Thanks

[John145]

Slagathore said:

John145 said:

Has this law fully passed now? All I can see online is that it is on it’s 3rd reading?

Useful Sunday morning NP&E rant! Thanks

I think it will be from June 1st:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tenant-f...

Great news. End of thread!

[John145]

Squiddly Diddly said:

You are providing a service to the landlord, it is therefore the landlord that should pay your fees.

Exactly. The one thing that makes capitalism work is competition. The link is broken for this mechanism though with the current setup.

Now the link will be clear: this EA charges more to offer a guarantee of better tenants, this EA charges less for less guarantees.

TBH I’m guinely surprised fees of 300-400 are though to be acceptable! It’s not a difficult job and does not take more than 2 hours working time to get a very thorough reference done. If you think it takes longer it’s because the methods are inefficient and now capitalism will deal with these inefficiencies the good old capitalism way. Change or go bust.

[John145]

digimeistter said:

No conflict of interest here, just a duty to all parties I do business with.

Works for me

Tenant: I want to pay as little as possible for as much as possible.
Landlord: I want to charge as much as possible for doing as little as possible.

Yup, can’t see a conflict of interests here!