A council has launched a letting agency to protect tenants from “the scourge of rip-off fees and charges”.
Haringey Council in north London has called its online letting agency Move 51⁰ North and claims it is the first in the UK to offer private tenants an alternative to mainstream letting agents.
It will, however, charge tenants fees: £180 to cover admin and £72 for credit checks. Check-out fees are up to £300.
It also charges withdrawal fees, whereby the tenant will forfeit at least £162.
Landlords will be offered lettings and property management services at the market rate.
The council expects to spend some £500,000 on the venture in the first three years, but that it will get this money back by the fifth year.
Alan Strickland, Haringey’s cabinet member for housing and regeneration, said the agency would “help stamp out rip-off fees and charges”.
Strickland said: “Private tenants in London are too often forgotten in the noisy debate about the housing market in our city.
“Haringey is fast becoming one of London’s most popular places to live and work, and we know many people prefer the flexibility of the private rented sector – which is why it’s vital we do more to protect them from rogue landlords and unscrupulous lettings firms.”
Move 51⁰ North says on its website that it has no shopfront but delivers “everything you would expect from a high street agent, and more”. Yesterday, it had still to start listing properties.
It employs a team of four, headed by Andrie Neophytou, a member of ARLA and the NAEA, who was previously with Edmund Cude (now Portico) as lettings director.
Comments (13)
Hmmm. looking at the website I can’t see landlords fees advertised anywhere, nor membership of a redress scheme. I know, I’ll ask local trading standards to take a quick look…..
Westminster did this 5 years ago!
looking at their website – cwhr. co .uk – they’ve made a few more quid back for the Council than Harringey hope to!
as long as councils can reduce council tax from profitable ventures – why not?!
So i have had about 8 hours for this to sink in….
How do you run a not for profit lettings agency for tenants?
1. Still have to pay a deposit to rent a property.
2. Still have to pay a month in advance.
3. Still need to be paid to be referenced
4. I assume they will have staff in these not for profit organisations to carry out viewings, arrange tenancies, deal with problems and of course arrange advertising.
Now unless i am mistaken all of the above costs money? so how is this going to save the tenant anything? Maybe £50 – £100 i can see but that is all.
Landlords will still want the market rent, The landlords will not buy more than the market fee to an agent to cover the tenants costs, so where are they proposing savings?
I truly am baffled!
Is it April 1st? How can they think this even makes sense? Completely agree with all comments 🙂
I agree with you all and I have to say this really is the funniest story I have read in a long time Thank you Haringey Council for the Laugh really enjoyed reading it and it has made my day Lol
why dont they just concentrate on essential services. They self-serving, egocentric juggernauts but thats our government and the EU generally. We need a slim jim approach to government and council. We dont need the EU either but thats off topic.
They charge tenants more than we do as well.
And I can’t see why landlords have to pay market rates for a service which appears to be an online only model and will probably be run like a factory line.
Haringey Council is investing £500k in a commercial venture unrelated to their mission.
It’s great to see that they have spare cash and residents must be glad that their council tax is decreasing.
Oh wait, they want to increase council tax by 2% to pay for social care, with a cabinet member commenting: “It’s really important to make it clear that the two per cent precept will not be enough to bridge the huge gap we face in funding for adult social care.”
Those £500k represent about a third of what the 2% increase is expected to raise. (Source: The Tottenham Independent)
Great business model, huge fees to tenants for everything and use the tax payers money to fund your running expenses. I wonder if they can spell irony?
On the of my charges to my tenants the these proposed fees would be RIP OFF FEES !!!!!
Would you trust a council with your property to rent it out? Councils are renowned for ABUSING the legal system encouraging tenants the commit contempt of court by not complying with a court order to vacate property until the bailiff turns up (at the landlord’s cost). Councils have specialist officers vetting private rental documents to try to find any loop holes to prevent evictions – would you trust them with your property???.
As they say; “once bitten twice shy” I would not trust any local authority; they use borough wide licensing schemes to rip of respectable landlords. And yes their proposed charges to tenants well exceed what I change my tenants. Still I guess £500,0000 of RIP OFF of rate payers money for residents of Harringay might rank them as a rogue council? I wonder what their voters feel about their council tax being spent on such speculative ventures?
They charge more than anyone in our area too!
I know it’s London but they charge more than me! Definitely Tweeting this…