Search Results for: Tenant Fees Act
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Latest property news
How much will agents lose when letting agent fees ban kicks in?
It’s a figure much discussed within the consultation document published on Friday setting out the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG’s) plans to introduced a letting agent fees ban. If the DCLG’s plans are implemented as they stand following the consultation period, then neither landlords nor agents will be able to charge tenants any “fees, premium or charges to facilitate the granting, renewal or continuance of a tenancy”. “The Government also proposes to ban any letting fees charged to tenants by landlords and any other third parties to ensure that letting agent fees are not paid by tenants through other routes. Tenants should only be required to pay their rent and a refundable deposit,” the consultation says. Average fee Within the document’s detail, the DCLG says the average fee taken by agents is between £200-300, based on the 2014-15 English Housing Survey, while the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) is reported to have indicated an average fee of £172 with a range of between £30 and £500. Campaigning group Generation Rent told DCLG that the average for a couple renting a home is £400 within range of between £40 and £780, while homelessness charity Shelter believes one in seven renters…
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Lettings fees ban WILL go ahead, says DCLG
The lettings fee ban is set to go ahead. The Government has announced its intention to introduce a total ban ands agents across the UK will not be able to charge any fees to tenants for their services, if the Government’s proposals are implemented. This isn’t a case of rattling cages to get the message through to agents that their fees may be disappearing, if they do not receive suitable responses from the consultation – today’s publication of the Consultation Paper leaves us in no doubt that there will be a total ban on lettings fees, as stated by Baroness Hayter (right) last week at the arla|propertymark Conference, it is just a matter of when and how it is implemented. Within the document, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) says, “DCLG officials undertook some market research of letting agent fees. We randomly chose 50 agents of differing sizes and models (i.e. franchises, independents and national branches) across the country and searched their website for a list of letting fees charged to tenants. This exercise reinforced how difficult it is for tenants to both find and compare agent fees since it was not always simple to either find the fees…
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TPO and CTSI launch Phase 2 of letting fees display crackdown – in Berkshire
Agents in Reading, Basingstoke and surrounding areas are warned. The Property Ombudsman (TPO) and the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) have today launched Phase 2 of its crack down on agents not properly displaying their letting fees. The launch follows a five-month effort by the two organisations in both Swansea and Dorset, during which 266 agents were contacted and asked to provide photographic evidence to demonstrate their compliance with the law on letting fees. Agents are required to display fees clearly both in their branch and on their website. Non-compliant Any agents that TPO and CTSI found not to compliant were then given the chance to amend and re-submit. Out of the Phase 1 agents, just two have failed to comply either by not replying or addressing problems with their compliance and will now be referred to TPO’s Disciplinary and Standards Committee for investigation and review. “We are unable to name the firms concerned at this stage – a statement will be made if any agents are expelled from the scheme, as per the normal process,” a spokesperson told The Negotiator. “99% of TPO letting agents in Swansea and Dorset are now displaying their fees correctly.” Adrian Simpson (pictured, left)…
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Here’s what letting fees ban will really mean for tenants and agents, industry tells DCLG
The likely results of a letting fees ban for tenants and agents have been spelled out by the National Approved Lettings Scheme (NALS) in a briefing document produced by its Fair Fees Forum for the Department of Communities and Local Government. As well as highlighting how poor policing of a letting fees ban would lead to an unfair advantage for those who did not comply with the ban, the Fair Fees Forum says there will be “a number of serious disadvantages for tenants”. These include: Rents will rise as landlords seek to recoup the costs of referencing, deposit administration and inventories. The practice of high ‘month one rents’ in lieu of fees will increase. Block viewings rather than individual accompanied viewings will become the norm. Tenancy negotiations will need to simpler and more streamlined and less tailored. Tenants will have to provide their own references plus a lot of the information currently gathered by letting agents. Less help for tenants when Right to Rent enquiries become complicated or with utility bill and transfer problems. Property standards may fall as landlords do fewer repairs or refurbish properties less often. The Fair Fees Forum also makes the point that banning fees may lead…
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Features
Is the tenant fee ban the thin end of the wedge?
Adam Walker is seriously irritated by the Government’s troublemaking – with good reason!
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Tenants not planning to buy
A growing number of tenants are not planning to buy and will probably rent for the long term, with little likelihood of buying a home. As letting agents experience growing demand, will there be enough properties? 38.4 per cent of tenants surveyed by The Deposit Protection Service said that they plan to remain in a rented home rather than buy property, The Deposit Protection Service (The DPS) has said. Most of those who said that they do intend to buy a property said it wouldn’t be likely within the next 12 months. 25.5 per cent said they hoped to own within six months, but 62 per cent said they didn’t expect to within the next year. The 1,000 tenants surveyed have their deposits registered with The DPS. Julian Foster, Managing Director of The DPS, said, “Renting is a vital part of the housing sector, and a significant proportion of the UK population choose to be tenants as it better suits their life plan or lifestyles. “However, buying a house is a significant financial undertaking, and renting will often also suit those who are saving for a deposit before accessing a mortgage. “The UK needs a flexible residential sector that suits the varied life choices and…
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Foxtons branch fined for not explaining tenant administration fee
Foxtons has been fined £2,500 after a tenant administration fee it charges was found to be not adequately explained. The sanction follows an inspection by Trading Standards at its Stratford branch near the Olympic Park in East London. The London Borough of Newham has been cracking down on agents all over the borough over the past two years as part of its Fair Lettings Project, which has sent out reminders about agents’ “obligations to consumers” and inspection teams dispatched to check branches to “ensure they don’t rip off tenants or landlords”. Foxtons was visited in January last year by a local Trading Standards officer who found that a £425 tenant administration fee charged to prospective tenants was not properly detailed. Despite the error being pointed out by the officer, the fee remained unexplained at the branch for several months and a penalty charge of £2,500 was accepted by Foxtons. “The Newham initiative was introduced to ensure that all of the 200 or so residential letting agents in the borough are complying with legislation designed to stop tenants being exploited,” the council says. “This includes ensuring that fees are transparent, that deposits are protected and that agents have fair terms and conditions.”…
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MP predicts letting fees ban will cut agent turnover by up to 20%
The letting fees ban will cut agent turnover by up to 20%, says Mike Freer, the Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green in North London (pictured). Freer, who is a buy-to-let landlord himself, says he has talked to letting agents in his constituency about the ban including Martyn Gerrard, which he describes as an ‘industry leader’ in his area. The company is unusual within the lettings sector because it does not charge tenants administration or contract fees. The MP says his research reveals that agent turnover is likely to reduce by between 10% and 20% among “agents who have been charging these spurious fees to tenants” if a ban is introduced and that this will weed out the “cut price unregulated agents” within the industry. He says agents in his area believe that such a dramatic drop in turnover will encourage agents to increase their charges to landlords, who in turn will raise rents to cover the increased costs. “In Scotland, where all but rent and refundable deposits were banned in 2012, the evidence shows that rents have risen as a direct consequence of the ban,” the MP says in his blog on website conservativehome.com. Freer then goes on…
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Features
Lettings fees: cap or outright ban?
The push to ban lettings fees to tenants is gathering momentum, but Isobel Thomson, Chief Executive, National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) says that a cap would be a better solution.
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Admin and contract fees ‘morally reprehensible’ says leading letting agent
A London estate agent has labelled letting agents’ administration and contract fees charged to tenants as ‘indefensible and morally reprehensible’ and says that is why his company doesn’t charge them. The comments came in an opinion piece written for North London newspaper the Ham&High by Simon Gerrard of 13-branch sales and letting agent Martyn Gerrard, which bills itself as the agent ‘where integrity counts’. “There are only two reasons why agents charge the fees. Some cut their fees to landlords to attract stock and then simply charge hazily explained admin fees to the tenants to make up the shortfall,” he says. “Alternatively, and even worse, some agents still charge the landlord the full fee and then also charge the tenants. “Either way it is estimated that a ban of these tenant fees will wipe 10-20 per cent off the turnover of agents who have been charging these spurious fees to tenants. Although this may result in fewer cut price unregulated agents, which is no bad thing, the unintended consequence is that tenants will ultimately be worse off.” Martyn Gerrard, which was established in 1964, does charge tenants a fee, albeit a much lower one than the government’s £233 national average,…
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