Tenants are having to pay an average of £1,700 upfront each time they move.
The sum includes deposits – which average £840 – plus the first month’s rent and an average of £298 in fees.
The research, by website SpareRoom, was based on responses from over 4,000 tenants in shared flats and houses.
The most common fees charged were for admin costs, paid by 66% of tenants.
The survey also found that most tenants (87%) would prefer to deal directly with landlords, who typically charge lower fees than letting agents or none at all.
Matt Hutchinson, director of SpareRoom, said: “Nothing unites tenants quite like a shared hatred of unexplained tenancy fees.
“Most tenants have to find a deposit before they get their last one back from their previous landlord, so adding almost £300 in fees to the equation can make the difference between being able to afford to move and having to stay put.
“In the wider world, consumers get to choose which supplier to use based on a variety of factors, including price and service, but when it comes to renting, tenants have no choice but to use the agent marketing the property they want.
“This means most have little choice over whether they pay fees or not.”
Comments (10)
They should try buying a property.
£1700 will seem like chicken feed after they pay for a survey; mortgage application & valuation; conveyancing/solicitors; CHAPS fee and removal costs!
Shockingly inflammatory headline PIE. Most uncharacteristic. Do tenants really expect NOT to have to pay their rent and deposit before they take possession of someone else's property ? Please revert to your usually sensible headers 😉
I agree marcH – PIE are using the same scare tactics that the likes of Shelter etc use – And coming from a otherwise exceptional and informative website I'm very dissapointed that they used this headline to attract google traffic!
Come on Rosalind 🙂
No doubt find they are the next group / company to advertise on eye, most controversial items / stories that are heavily weighted one way tend to miraculously start advertising – NAEA, OTM/AM, RATEAAGENT, PROPERTY OMBUDSMAN
So effectively, reading this, all they are actually paying to move is £300 and that is unaffordable and preventing them moving? If they find £300 prohibitive maybe they shouldn't be moving at all, I would be seriously concerned if a tenant found £300 unaffordable…. I think the point that every single one of these articles misses time and time again is that there are those of us agents that charge what we need to to cover our time and run our businesses and then there are those that charge over £600 in upfront fees, some of which have no conceivable explanation at all!
On behalf on all tenants I propose we form a mutual, we can get some bloke to run and pay him £250'000 a year, staff it with former members of the estate agents we hate paying the fees to , not move for a period of 5 years and call it "innovative"
Can I run it for £250,000 please
I think we've already bashed the hell out of this topic with the likes of Shelter. I just wonder why Spareroom carried out this so called research in the first place. If you ask people to complain about what they pay for, they will nearly always oblige.
How on earth do you get the concept that tenants are paying too much – £1,700 each time they move?
If a tenant is moving from one tenancy to another, the only fee they should have to pay is their referencing fee. Their deposit will move across and their first month’s rent is a continuation from their last tenancy.
So, unless an agent is charging that much, it doesn’t make sense. Unless of course their last deposit is paying for damages!
The deposit has to be paid on the day they move in, the deposit on the last property has up to 30days to be returned in some cases, once the checkout has been done and any stoppages discussed, then the landlord has to inform the Agent (in writing) to confirm that the deposit can be returned.