House renting fees

Slinkie · 20 Jul 2018 at 19:17

Hi all,

I recently sold my house but the purchase of the house I was buying fell through. In the short term I am going to rent and have been looking at houses recently. I haven't rented since I left university (over ten years ago) so not sure what is reasonable in terms of fees I need to pay.

On one viewing I was told I'd have to pay £300 for a reference check to be carried out before I could move in. This seems very excessive but is this normal? What other fees could I be asked to pay on top of this?

XeNoN89 · 20 Jul 2018 at 19:31

Pretty normal to have to pay a few hundred in fees and then 6weeks rent up front as deposit

LuckyBenski · 20 Jul 2018 at 19:36

Haven't renewed or moved in 6 years but back then, £75-100 was typical from a ****** estate agent. Some reasonable ones charged less/nothing. Had one especially bad agency charge a reference check fee, inspection fee, guarantor fee and new contract fee. They had £25 charge any time they contacted you about late rent too. Think that place got about £260 out of me. One month deposit was standard then.

Wouldn't be surprised if £300 and 6 weeks deposit is the norm in London now. It's gross.

MooMoo444 · 20 Jul 2018 at 19:40

My favourite ridiculous fee is when they have a 50-100 renewal fee every year for changing the date on the contract and printing it.

Diddums · 20 Jul 2018 at 19:49

MooMoo444 said:
My favourite ridiculous fee is when they have a 50-100 renewal fee every year for changing the date on the contract and printing it.

Agreed. The last two years I've told them to jog on and they haven't even contested it. Estate agents are generally bottom feeding scum, life's safety net job for people who lack the drive / ability to earn a decent living so they simply **** people over on fees instead. Can't stand them, cretins.

//We had a flag for rent in our block, fairly nice block, was £1400 a month excluding bills. It stayed empty for a while except for weekends so we thought it was some offshore worker or something, until we started noticing an estate agent's Golf parked a block down the road. This guy was having parties in this flat every weekend and stinking the whole block out with weed. I rang a police officer friend and asked him if he could just give them a bit of a scare, he knocked on their door to ask them to stop stinking the block out and when they opened they'd literally just racked up a load of stripes. He pretended not to see it because he was technically not on duty but we never saw them back again.

I detest estate agents.

A2Z · 20 Jul 2018 at 21:02

Diddums said:
I detest estate agents.

Agreed! Can't stand the ****. Completely pointless and worthless job. Add nothing. Just take money from you.

18 months ago I had to pay £300 'fee' to rent a property. I found it on Gumtree as I wanted to deal directly with the landlord no estate agents, but the landlord had an 'agent' sorting out viewings, references etc which sucked but I wanted the property so had to pay.

Didn't they introduce a new law last year banning these fees?

Rroff · 20 Jul 2018 at 21:12

The fees take the mick - 10-15 years ago IIRC I paid like £18 for something and £30 for reference check - I bet these places charging like £300 don't even bother to check either :s high time these kind of fees were clamped down on as the industry can't self-regulate - though they'd then probably try and shoe horn it into the rent

LuckyBenski · 20 Jul 2018 at 21:13

A2Z said:
Didn't they introduce a new law last year banning these fees?

I think legally they were never very above board, though I did hear of something new pushing back against them recently.

kaktus · 20 Jul 2018 at 21:24

A2Z said:
Agreed! Can't stand the ****. Completely pointless and worthless job. Add nothing. Just take money from you.

18 months ago I had to pay £300 'fee' to rent a property. I found it on Gumtree as I wanted to deal directly with the landlord no estate agents, but the landlord had an 'agent' sorting out viewings, references etc which sucked but I wanted the property so had to pay.

Didn't they introduce a new law last year banning these fees?

Fear not, their industry is dying and will soon be completely automated

BennoUK · 21 Jul 2018 at 07:38

The Tenant Fees Bill has its third and final reading in the House of Commons on the 5th September 2018. It will then be passed over to the House of Lords for 3 readings and for amendments, depending on what they say it might have to go through the House of Commons again, otherwise it will go through for Royal Ascent and become law.

Considering it was first motioned nearly 2 years ago it is taking its sweet time. Loads of estate agents are going to go bust though, they rely on this revenue stream by basically extorting tenants - the number of house transactions are at decade lows so they are not making money there and online competition from the likes of Purple Bricks is also killing them.

aardvark · 21 Jul 2018 at 10:13

BennoUK said:
The Tenant Fees Bill has its third and final reading in the House of Commons on the 5th September 2018. It will then be passed over to the House of Lords for 3 readings and for amendments, depending on what they say it might have to go through the House of Commons again, otherwise it will go through for Royal Ascent and become law.

Considering it was first motioned nearly 2 years ago it is taking its sweet time. Loads of estate agents are going to go bust though, they rely on this revenue stream by basically extorting tenants - the number of house transactions are at decade lows so they are not making money there and online competition from the likes of Purple Bricks is also killing them.

my violin is so small i can't even find it.

mid_gen · 21 Jul 2018 at 10:32

Te UK is finally doing something about how awful tenant's rights are? Maybe there's hope it'll be an appealling place to live again in future.

LuckyBenski · 21 Jul 2018 at 10:35

mid_gen said:
Te UK is finally doing something about how awful tenant's rights are? Maybe there's hope it'll be an appealling place to live again in future.

Maybe outside London. Without rent control it will still cost a beyond unreasonable amount to live here. I think my generation (~30 right now) will end up having a mass exodus to nicer and cheaper places.

doodah · 2 May 2019 at 10:05

Bumpety bump. We are about to put an offer in to rent a flat and noticed this...

With the law changing next month - can they still ask for a renewal fee?

VincentHanna · 2 May 2019 at 10:07

Wait 1 month and they won't be able to charge it.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/01/letting-fees-to-be-banned-from-june/

doodah · 2 May 2019 at 10:11

Problem is we might not have a month and really want this property. I don't mind paying now - it's in two years I am wondering about.

VincentHanna · 2 May 2019 at 10:13

Ask them...

I'm of the opinion they would be breaking the law in 2 years and could only charge you £50.

doodah · 2 May 2019 at 10:16

Yeah fired off an email asking. Keen to see the incoming BS....

Puzzled · 2 May 2019 at 10:32

I don't know what checks they actually do anyway, a search has never shown up on my credit score after paying for it. Considering even a car insurance quote shows up so I would have thought that such a time intensive check (must be right to justify those fee's) would leave a trace.

Glad they are finally being banned though, will have to see if landlords put rents up or if they just outright refuse to pay stupid fee's themselves.

Tom_ed1987 · 2 May 2019 at 10:34

When the time comes just refuse to renew, job done. No fees & the tenancy becomes a periodic.