A new call for letting agents’ fees to be scrapped has come, this time from Manchester City Council.
The council, which is to lobby the Government, has announced that Trading Standards will embark on a programme of visiting letting agents to ensure that their fees are accurate and transparent.
The local authority, which is Labour run, says it will also now lobby all three main party leaders, calling on them to commit to the regulation of letting and managing agents.
The move follows an eight-month inquiry into the treatment of private tenants.
While the report says that most landlords and agents provide a good service, there was also poor practice, including “excessive fees, disrepair and reliatory evicitions”.
The report says that there were “common themes” of letting agent fees being excessive and opaque, and deposits not being repaid.
Tenants also complained of drawn out and frustrating dealings with agents over repair issues.
The report calls for a new tenants’ charter in the city, and proposes to publish a list of landlords who are members of recognised bodies.
City centre councillor Kevin Peel, who set up the inquiry, said: “[There will now be] a new regime of Trading Standards visits to ensure letting agents are providing accurate and transparent information about fees – but it’s clear that in order to deliver real change we need new legislation and new powers and resources from national government.
“That is why we will be writing to all three party leaders calling for a commitment to regulation of letting and managing agents – supported by many in the industry – as well as funding to provide support to leaseholders experiencing difficulties with managing agents.
“We will also be calling for letting fees for tenants to be scrapped, which can currently be as high as £600 every time you move house.”
Comments (1)
I am an agent in Manchester and I do think that the regulation of fee's is needed. But this needs to be carried out by someone who knows the industry, someone who knows that if application fees were scrapped altogether then the money would need to be gained from elsewhere, I would suspect that most agents do not have enough 'slack' in their budgets to simply scrap the application fee and not gain the money back elsewhere.
Inevitably higher fees to landlords would, in turn means increase in rents to tenants. I would suggest a cap on application fee's set at a level after a consultation with agents.
The problem lies with a minority of agents who are making excessive charges – not the majority who are clear on their fee's up front.
There is another problem though, which has not been mentioned and I suspect Trading Standards need to get up to speed on, hidden fees. Many of the agents who were / are charging excessive 'application' fees have now simply reduced their 'application' fee but now charge a 'checking in' fee, 'checking out' fee an 'inventory' fee, a 'cleaning' fee – the list is endless. I know that when we were visited by Trading Standards in relation to this we only got asked the question – 'How much is your application fee' – our response could easily have been 'nothing' – we only charge a 'pre-tenancy check' fee.