Tenant Admin Fees Guide for Tenants

Letting Agents Need to Ensure Their Tenant Admin Fees are Transparent

Tenant Admin Fees are a Fair Way to Do Business

Housing Charity Shelter would like to see letting agents fees outlawed in England and Wales having already persuaded the Scottish Parliament to scrap tenants’ fees. We want to explain why this could be a bad thing for tenants.

The job of a letting agent is quite time-consuming and, as we know, time is money. It is expensive to rent property to tenants. There are many costs involved in setting up tenancies, and obviously the majority of these costs are borne by the landlord. However there are costs that link directly to a tenant including references, legal documents, and the time spent with tenants finding just the right property for them. All of these are legitimate reasons that the tenant should bear some of the costs of renting property, and are often charged as tenant admin fees, but perhaps the most relevant one is to ensure that the tenant is fully committed to the process.

Where a tenant does not pay any fees but decides to take a rental property the landlord often suspends marketing the property while the agent takes out references. (Even where marketing continues the agent is accruing costs by keeping that property on the market in terms of advertising and conducting viewings). There is nothing holding that tenant to the property and so in the meantime he finds another property that suits him just a bit better and so off he goes leaving the first landlord and agent high and dry.

Rising Costs Mean Rising Rents

Who should bear the costs of referencing the tenant, and any other legal and administrative work that has been undertaken by the agent? If it is the landlord then he will put his rent up, if it is the agent he will put his fees up, then landlord will then put the rent up.

With no fees charged to them the tenant could switch properties several times before committing himself, with no financial penalty at all. Most landlords will have experienced this problem even where the tenant has had to lose a couple of hundred pounds to move on to another property, so imagine how much worse this will get if there is no financial commitment on his part.

There is a myth that all landlords are rich, that all agents are rolling in money, and that all tenants are honourable people who are taken advantage of by sharks.

Most people are reasonably honest and respectable, and I include landlords, agents and tenants in this generalisation, but of course there is a measure of self-interest driving all of us, so if there is no concrete commitment in place there will be more timewasters costing the industry money, and so overall prices will rise, and this will mean that rents will rise.

In our opinion the only way to deal fairly with this situation is for agents to charge a reasonable fee for the work they do; to be open and transparent with their fees; and for everyone to keep to their side of the bargain.

Guide for tenants

• Ask your Letting Agent what fees they charge before you view a property.
• When you have found a property, ask for a written break-down of how much you will pay for the specific property you want to rent.
• Check if the Agents charge for renewals, check out fees, and any other miscellaneous fees.
• Make it clear to the Letting Agent that you will not pay for any charges that they do not detail in this initial exchange.
• Ask for confirmation from the Agent, in writing, of all monies that you will be expected to pay including the rent up front and deposit so you are absolutely clear in your own mind what you will need to pay for.
• Don’t commit to renting a property unless you intend to move into it.

It will be interesting to see how the Scottish system works out over a period of time, and whether in fact tenants are any better off due to this change in legislation north of the border.

If you want to find out more about becoming a tenant, and avoiding tenancy pitfalls check out the Top 10 things tenants should know, when renting a property on DIY Doctor’s project pages.

You can read more about Protecting yourself from Rogue Agents if you are thinking of renting a property.