ARLA Propertymark has swung into full campaign mode on the letting fees ban, sending out a ‘battle kit’ to all its members.
The kit, which was sent out just before the long weekend, is comprehensive.
It includes a campaign letter template; wording for an e-postcard that can be shared with colleagues, enabling them to oppose the ban quickly and easily; a proposed agenda for agents to use when they meet their MPs; a briefing paper to give to MPs; and an economic analysis, called Letting the Side Down.
This piece of research, commissioned by ARLA Propertymark, has found that if an outright ban is introduced – as the Government plans – then tenants will not save money, property standards will fall, and 4,000 jobs will be lost within the sector.
Agents are being urged to do all they can to get their MPs on-side.
They are being asked to put over various points, including that fees should be open and fair, but not banned.
MPs should also be told that 87% of agents believe that rents will go up if fees are banned.
ARLA members are also being asked to put over to their MPs just how much work agents do that is required by law. According to ARLA, agents who manage rental properties have to comply with no fewer than 160 laws and regulations.
The letting fees consultation runs until June 2 and relates to England only. The consultation is not on the ban itself, but how it should be implemented and enforced.
The consultation says that a study of 50 randomly chosen agents shows that fees ranged from £120 to £747.
Reference checks for two tenants ranged from £20 to £570; charges for tenancy agreements ranged from £48 to £480; and inventories from £50 to £216.
The consultation says that banning fees will make moving around in the private rented sector less costly and reduce the risk of homelessness.
The totality of the proposed ban is made very clear: “Tenants should only be required to pay their rent and a refundable deposit.”
The consultation, at the link below, also mentions capping deposits.
The consultation says that a study of 50 randomly chosen agents shows that fees ranged from £120 to £747.
Reference checks for two tenants ranged from £20 to £570; charges for tenancy agreements ranged from £48 to £480; and inventories from £50 to £216.
The rip off letting agents have made their bed.
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Perfecly put. The only people responsible for this are us. Well, not me of course as it must be everyone else’s fault!
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Oh come on ARLA. Let this be. Fees to tenants NEED to be a thing of the past, for the sake of our profession. We work for the landlord and should only charge any fees to him or her.
There is a very simple reason why ALL letting agents charge the tenants so much and that is purely down to supply and demand. Tenants are two a penny but every agent wants to find more and more landlords (quite right to!) by moving the letting and managing expenses over to the tenant. It makes perfectly good business sense but is unfair to the tenants (who have little or no choice) and just helps to line the pockets of letting agents.
In this area we have let only agents charging no fee at all the landlords and ramping up the costs to prospective tenants with some charging unreasonably large fees for every application, whether or not it is abortive. The current state of play also encourages agents to take multiple applications from prospective tenants and make a very nice fee out of all of them.
At the very best letting agents should be allowed a maximum fee of, say £100, for a tenant find. There should be on fee for renewals as this is just money for nothing.
ARLA, you are fighting a losing battle with a very weak case. Please look to spend members money on something that has at least a small chance of success and some inkling of fairness.
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News Boy, I agree with you that there are some letting agents operating who are taking advantage of the system and this needs to be addressed, however, this does not apply to the vast majority. The tenants are charged a fee for a service provided. I do not know of any other industry where a customer is provided a service but does not have to pay. You also say that a renewals fee is money for nothing. I’m not sure how you deal with your renewals, but when we deal with them we liaise between landlord and tenant, draw up new tenancy agreements and re-secure the tenants deposit (of which we have to pay a fee). We charge the tenant £60 for a renewal which covers our costs and I believe this is fair and appropriate.
The government’s energy would be better placed in ensuring that all Letting Agents are professionally qualified and licenced. This will hopefully remove some of the rogue elements. If we want our industry to be regarded as a professional body then this is surely the route to take.
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Hi mac
i would respectfully disagree. The majoirty of the services provided are for the benefit of the landlord not the tenant i.e. referencing, deposit compliance, tenancy agreements, check in and check out.
On renewals, I agree there is some work involved with renewals, however some agents insist on renewals and I know some companies who charge the landlord and tenant, if the tenancy becomes periodic.
As I have always said, its the minoirty of agents, who have spoilt it for the majoirty.
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Macs and Ding Dong. I don’t think we disagree on much here. There are some small fees that are fair to charge and your renewal fee is fair and sensible. We do the same work as you. I say it should be charged to the landlord. There is a fair argument that some of the cost should go to the tenant.
What we are fighting against though is agents being allowed to charge up to £400 just to make an application. As we all know the credit checks are now very, very cheap. This is bringing our business into disrepute. Without some sort of legislation it will continue.
I take your point about oabout providing a service without getting paid. Thinking about it I do know of a very similar industry where only one side pays – How about residential sales. We carry out a huge amount of work FOR the buyer but only get paid by our CLIENT, the seller.
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OI ARLA! DO SOMETHING!!!!!
OI ARLA! DO SOMETHING!!!!!
OI ARLA! DO SOMETHING!!!!!
OI ARLA! DO SOMETHING!!!!! ad infinitum
Oh. You’ve done something.
OI ARLA! NOT THAT!
OI ARLA! NOT THAT!
OI ARLA! NOT THAT!
OI ARLA! NOT THAT! ad infinitum
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The consultation paper released by the Government puts more of a case forward to cap fees not a total ban in my view. I would suggest ARLA use this paper to their advantage.
Every reason given for banning fees in this paper could also be addressed by capping fees. Transparency, competition etc.
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Which is what they would have done had they fully read and understood the paper.
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Bit of a waste of time trying to fight this……… at a time of “popular politic” this one is a dead cert for results. Have you read some of the comments from the other side of the coin? https://www.facebook.com/TheTenantsVoice.co.uk/
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