Agents’ fees round table – here’s the video

| Rosalind Renshaw

A video is now available to watch last month’s round table debate on letting agent fees.

The debate, chaired by EYE’s Nick Salmon, was generously hosted by software supplier VTUK.

The original EYE report was here

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6 Comments

  1. MF
    October 26, 2015 at 16:10

    Thank you Eye – good to see this.  And I agree with the lady that commented about the element within our industry that charge tenants too much.  So, I still say Government needs to cap fees to tenants.

    As for the gentleman commenting that if tenants don’t like my fees no one’s forcing them to rent through my agency, I would say please appreciate the frustration of finding what looks to be the ideal home, only to then find that the agent’s tenant fees are what they might consider to be very high.  And if that property is only listed with your agency, they are put in a position of “pay the fee or lose the property”.  Not very fair.  Tenants usually search for a property, not an agent.

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  2. MarkRowe
    October 26, 2015 at 16:32

    Hi @MF

    Appreciate your comment and yes I agree, you have a point. However, I think the film was cut in places whereby the full conversation wasn’t shown.

    I understand that Tenants do not have the full marketplace to choose from, my point was more that it’s the expectancy, from an ever growing trend of people, who have the mentality – ‘because everyone else can afford it, then I expect to have it too… oh and I don’t want to pay for it either’ is simply not something agents should be expected to accommodate.

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    1. MF
      October 27, 2015 at 08:02

      Morning MarkRowe – thanks for the clarification. I take your points, as indeed I accepted most of the points made at the meeting.  Certainly, I feel that tenants should expect to pay toward things like tenancy agreements and inventories. But, because the level of fee charged to tenants can vary from small amounts (say £50 per person) to large amounts (say £250 per person) I believe that government should step in and impose a cap on the amount of fees that can be charged to tenants.

      I wonder if we would even have this issue in our industry if all agents were charging similar, reasonable amounts.

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      1. MarkRowe
        October 27, 2015 at 09:57

        Morning @MF

        I agree with you completely – I think there are a few agents that overcharge. Unfortunately the suggestion put forward by the activist groups during the debate was that the fees shouldn’t exist at all.

        As per @seenitall’s comment below we are private businesses so we should be free to choose what fees we charge just like any other.

        Glad you enjoyed the debate though! 🙂

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  3. MarkRowe
    October 26, 2015 at 16:38

    Sorry, slight typo…

    ‘because someone else can afford it” not “everyone else”!

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  4. seenitall
    October 27, 2015 at 09:21

    I cant think of any other private business where the government caps or limits their fees.  We are a market economy not a communist state.     It is so dangerous for govt to start to limit ‘profit’ or ‘fees’ an company or individual can make.    What other companies will they limit profits on- it cant be fair or legal to do so.

     

    Limited supply of a desirable item will push up the costs  – its part of a free market.

    The demand is there. fees should be set to what the market can sustain.     If a landlord property does not get let because the agents fees are too high then that agent will lost that landlord and go out of business.

    Agents should be free to charge what they like to landlords and tenants.  We are all members of a redress scheme, there is enough red tape.

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