City where over half letting agents are failing to display fees

| Rosalind Renshaw

Research has found that fewer than a third of letting and managing agents in one city are displaying their fees in full accordance with the requirement of the Consumer Rights Act.

McCartan Lettings and Property Management, in Swansea, checked the websites of 50 agents across the seven postcodes where it operates and found only 17 were displaying fees as required.

Over half were not displaying fees chargeable to tenants and 62% were not displaying fees chargeable to landlords.

The research was carried out in May, and re-checked over the last week to find that almost nothing had changed.

While two more agents were listing fees on their websites, their lists were incomplete and still did not comply.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 makes it a legal requirement for all letting and managing agents in England and Wales to publicise details, in branch and online, of all their fees to landlords and tenants, and to say whether they have Client Money Protection insurance in place.

Hannah McCartan, managing director at McCartan Lettings, said: “As a business owner it is frustrating that the Government brings in this legislation for tenants and landlords to be more empowered, but it’s become more complicated and confusing than ever before as so many agents are not compliant. There’s no consistency.

“It’s not a level playing field and rogue agents are getting away with profiting from the confusion and lack of policing.”

x

Email the story to a friend!

More top news stories



12 Comments

  1. Oliver Wharmby
    October 7, 2016 at 07:35

    16 months since the Introdution of mandatory fee, redress and CMP disclosure and yet still two thirds of agents fall foul. its the same old story. Lack of policing.

    Report
  2. jeremy1960
    October 7, 2016 at 08:14

    Hardly a level playing field is it if only us honest ones publish fees leaving those who break the law the chance to speak with more landlords? I followed an agent into an appointment rdcently who had left the landlord screenshots of all the advertised fees wigh a scribbled note stating they would “beat all quoted fees!” – that agent doesn’t publish fees. In a little over a month in Wales it will be an offence for landlords not to be registered and for agents not to have received training and bdckme registered/licensed – bring sjmilar in here and fine the lot of ghem that cannot be ar**d to comply!

    Report
  3. iancolban27
    October 7, 2016 at 08:30

    Not displaying fees both to the letter and spirit of the regulations is very shortsighted. Gavin Barwell has said a total ban on fees won’t be considered until a review of the transparency arrangements has taken place. By not complying agents are increasing the possibility of fees being banned completely.

    Report
  4. mrharvey
    October 7, 2016 at 09:06

    Quick! Somebody needs to resolve this informally!

    Who should we call?

    Report
  5. Woodentop
    October 7, 2016 at 09:25

    I posted this yesterday as a bit of tongue in check but with a hint of seriousness as I would say there isn’t a town in the UK that is 100% compliant? May be it should be considered after all …..

     

    The idea of having to publish fees was intended to help tenants identify which agents to stay away from and likewise the landlords to consider the same in fear tenants will stay away but the message clearly didn’t get through to the public in terms of relevance. Maybe its about time the whole thing on fees (and lack of disclosure by many) should be reviewed and made more relevant. Remember the FS wealth warning etc? The only ones who would be upset are the ones the fees was supposed to expose …… “WARNING this agency may charge higher fees than others and be too costly for tenants to afford and the property not be let, please consider their fee structure before engaging with this and other agents”.

    Report
    1. A_J42
      October 18, 2016 at 15:27

      Not sure I completely understand your last paragraph, there.

      We display our fees, but our problem is that we seem more expensive than other agents who aren’t displaying their fees. It might seem, at the beginning, that a landlord is getting a cheaper deal with another agent, but actually, they will end up paying more because there are (previously undisclosed) hidden and/or admin fees, etc etc etc. You can see exactly what we charge and what for from the outset – and we aren’t making secret profits, and we aren’t charging for things like arranging maintenance or anything like that.

      If, once everyone is displaying their fees properly, transparently, it turns out that we are one of the more expensive agents, so be it – it’s then up to us to adjust our prices to be fair, or to make plain the above-and-beyond nature of the service we are providing. That’s where, I think, at least, the real, fair competition is.

      Report
X

You must be logged in to report this comment!

Log In Register

Back to Homepage

Comments are closed.

Thank you for signing up to our newsletter, we have sent you an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Additionally if you would like to create a free EYE account which allows you to comment on news stories and manage your email subscriptions please enter a password below.