Alleged “nasty practices”by letting agents have been highlighted by the Telegraph.
The paper accuses agents of “profit-making”tricks in a story that made the ‘splash’ lead in yesterday’s Money section.
The story also paints a picture of agents making big decisions about rental properties – evicting and replacing tenants, and risking voids, for example – all without any input from landlords, let alone acting on their instructions.
The tricks?
Apparently these are: evicting tenants who challenge agents’ fees; hidden fees; shoddy referencing, leading agents to reject ‘perfect’ tenants’; and inflating maintenance charges.
The online version of the report is here
Comments (4)
That article says more about the editorial decline of the Telegraph than it ever does to condemn the industry. If a 14 year old submitted that as homework I doubt the author would have the most complete star chart on the wall.
Think you have summed it up nicely Robert – shoddy, lazy reporting
Here we go again bad letting agent, naughty letting agent – seems to be the fashion these days to have a pop without thorough research. No doubt these agents do exist in these so called "Cash Cons" but they are in the minority not majority! Where are ARLA, NAEA and such like? when will these toothless organisations actually go out there and promote our industry? its not the sales or lettings market that needs a shake up is our self appointed so called governing bodies that need to stand up and fight back. We need clear and prominent leadership, a press office that has connections in the media and drip feed positive stories in and for them to promote us, not just give us four or five letters to advertise after our name that the public know nothing about!
I think Ms Palmer has been led astray by some mischievous rascal!! It shows a depressing lack of integrity that she hasn't even bothered to check the legality of what she's reporting.
Even the most cursory check into her first 'tip' would have revealed that an agent can't evict a landlord's tenant, only a Court can do that. If the landlord really was happy with the tenant they surely wouldn't have proceeded with the court case. Unless she's alluding to the agent pretending to be the landlord in Court? now that really would be a story worth printing.
Half stories and supposition again, its getting boring.