Winkworth is to conduct an investigation into an office which was said by the Guardian to have charged a tenant £835 “to scribble a new name on a contract”.
The Guardian story, by Patrick Collinson, said that four sharers rented a property at Herne Hill in south London.
When one moved out, the others searched for a new flatmate and informed Winkworth when they found one..
Collinson said: “Winkworth should be grateful the work has been done for them. Instead, its local branch asked the new tenant to pay £835.38. That’s right, nearly a grand to scratch out the name on a tenancy contract and scribble in a new one.
“The grubby overcharging didn’t stop there. The local Winkworth agent (it’s a franchise business) said it wanted a total of £1,670.76 as it also formalised a tenant swap last year, despite that tenant already paying a £90 reference fee.”
Collinson said that one of the tenants, a young lawyer called Will Carter, challenged the “outrageous set of fees” and wrote a letter to Winkworth’s Herne Hill branch, copying in Collinson; the following day Winkworth “rolled over”, admitted to an “unfortunate oversight” and cut the fee to £210.
Collinson remarked that £210 was also unacceptable and said: “The ban on letting fees can’t come soon enough”.
Winkworth have now issued a statement, while also stressing that the Guardian story had implied that all that was involved was a name change on a contract. However, there was more work involved than that.
The full statement says: “We have recently been alerted to the issue concerning Herne Hill, and we will be conducting an investigation with the office to ascertain whether an error has been made.
“We will ensure that their fees going forward are fair and reasonable based on the work that is involved, and that any errors will be corrected.
“As we are a franchise, freedom is given to the offices to set their individual fees; however, we expect all of our offices to charge fees that are reasonable and consistent, but at the same time recognise the amount of administration work involved.
“As a brand, we support the Fair Fees Forum and do not condone fees that are above the market rate.
“The average admin fees across the Winkworth network are slightly less than the general market rate, and having reviewed a number of offices in the area, we have identified that this charge is not in line with other local offices’ rates for the same work.”
To Late, London agents have ruined it for letting industry by not self regulating years ago.
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