Lettings agency boss slams corporates for ‘bizarre’ extra fees charged to landlords
Nick Goble of Noble Estates in Clapham, London says his fixed charges are fairer and more transparent as he takes on big nationals.
A lettings agency in London has launched a new approach to fees and charges that offers landlords an all-inclusive three-tier service without the ‘bizarre’ range of hidden extras some agencies add to their monthly invoices.
Nick Goble, founder of Clapham-based firm Noble Estates (main image), says his new model for lettings fees is in response to many landlords on his patch facing a harsh financial environment.
“The pressure on landlords is immense; I’ve not known anything like it during my 36 years working within the industry and the Government’s own data shows how this has shaken confidence among buy-to-let investors – it’s going to become a dying industry if we’re not careful,” he tells The Neg.
“Successive governments have got it wrong with landlords and the extra taxations on landlords recently and now selective and HMO licensing too are just the latest examples of this.
“We’re seeing this on my patch and I’ve got one landlord selling 15 of his properties.”
So his firm is to charge its small portfolio landlords a let only fee of 10%, full management fee of 15% as well as a flat administrative fee of £450, with the first two variable depending on portfolio size.
Corporate agencies
Goble says his new approach is in reaction to the many corporate agents on his patch which use low fees to get landlords on board, and then bill up to 20 to 30 charges for additional work which he calls the ‘Ryan Air’ approach.
“For example, one very well-known national corporate is currently charging £250 to landlords to process a tenancy deposit, but that is nothing compared to the extra percentage some corporates charge on ‘capital works’ of up to 20% on any maintenance or repairs.
“So if a rental property needs say a new roof costing £12,000 then that’s a £4,000 additional cost on top for the landlord.
“One corporate I compete with classifies capital works as anything over £350 – it’s crazy. It’s just a wheeze to get more money out of landlords. We simply don’t charge for this kind of thing – what’s the point of charging a management fee and then charging fees to complete jobs that you would assume were included in the overall fee.”
Goble also says he’s about to include a rental guarantee scheme that he is sourcing from Rightmove, “as I think landlords will want and need extra protection as the Renters’ Rights Bill becomes law and evicting tenants with rent arrears becomes more difficult,” he adds.
Not to put a dampener on this idea but its hardly a new innovation. While I agree that many of the corporates charge extra for everything they can, most of the smaller firms don’t, simply because it wouldn’t be tolerated by their hard won customers. That said a charge for over seeing major works ( think fire damage, flooding etc) doesn’t seem unreasonable. Lettings fees have been a race to the bottom for sometime , which has led , in my opinion, to the market being flooded with agents offering cut price deals , many of which don’t allow the ongoing job to be done properly. This sometimes leads to the sort of situation that we sometimes see reported on this website i.e agents going bust , clients rents not being paid or just a general lack of care by the agent concerned.