A petition against letting agent fees started by an online consumer publication aimed at young women had gathered over 230,000 signatures by yesterday.
The petition is on change.org and was launched last month by The Debrief.
However, its attempt to get a similar petition launched on the Parliament website has been rejected.
This is because there is already a petition on a similar subject, although it has only garnered around 200 signatures and does not seem to be wholly comparable.
Despite this potential setback for The Debrief’s campaign, it is stepping up its efforts with fresh calls for a ban on letting agent fees.
It says they are “out of control” in England and that they are a “rip-off”.
It cites a fee of £210 which it says Foxtons charges to change a name on an existing tenancy.
A call to action says: “‘For what?’ one friend of mine protested recently, before she called them and offered to go in and print off the documents herself.”
The Debrief also claims: “Every time you move and go through a letting agent you will incur some kind of cost. There’s no way of knowing what you’ll be charged until you’re about to sign, unless you think ahead and check on their website where they are legally required to publish their fees.
“When you’re in the midst of a stressful and draining flat hunt that’s not exactly the first thing on your mind, though, is it?
“When you find a flat you actually like, what are the chances that you’ll just swallow the fees so you can secure a decent place? This is not a renter’s market and estate agents are taking advantage of that fact.”
The publication has also asked readers what they have paid.
One says she paid £856 last time she moved, with the inventory alone costing £150.
The reader, a trainee teacher, says: “These fees are definitely not fair – what are they charging you for? Just to sign a bit of paper? I’m sure there are legal reasons but whenever we’ve dealt with agencies they don’t seem to make our job of looking for a flat easier – they don’t really seem to care.”
Another reader, aged 22, paid about £2,300 in total when she moved, saying “an extortionate” amount of which was in fees to the agent.
The Debrief launched its petition, calling on Brandon Lewis to ban fees, some three weeks ago.
Comments (14)
As letting agents we will be resistant to this……..but from the point of view of a politician looking for easy votes? With nearly half the population living in rented accommodation (with social housing included) this is a particularly attractive route to some goodwill…… I have 9:4 on that fees will be banned by this government about three months before the next election.
The originator of the petition Victoria Spratt, had half an hours air-time on Radio Oxford on Sunday….. there was some reasoned response from local agents. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03pl1x9
From the article on The Debrief
“Letting agency fees in England are totally unregulated. However, in Scotland they’ve been completely banned since 2012!”
Whilst they have been banned, it was the law that was clarified. the Scottish housing act did not allow for a premium to be payable and this is what was clarified – They were not banned, the law was clarified.
For the same to happen in the England will require a change of law, but given the regulations now state that agents MUST display their fees on all material including their website. We have a calculator on our website which gives the tenant an exact figure on how much they will need to move into the property – Can’t be any more transparent than that.
I agree that some charges are extortionate, but an outright ban will be a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I run a group on facebook for agents and I have to say, that 99% of its members are there to do the job right and to make sure the tenant is protected as well as acting for the landlord.
I am assuming that Vicky Spratt takes a wage of some sort? Unless of course all the utility companies, food providers and any other service that she uses is giving it to her for free?
I recently had a plasterer do some plastering in my house, he charged me £250 a day plus materials and I don’t even live in London! So maybe we could start a petition to stop these unfair days rates!
This is all very commendable but getting a tad boring – As others constantly say, a cap would be more beneficial than an outright ban.
I suspect that if you start a petition to ban any fee very many will sign it (without thinking it through).
As I keep banging on: cap fees; don’t ban them.
The likely outcome of an outright ban is that additional fees will be loaded onto landlords who, in turn, will consider their options: Increase rent? Try to get by without an agent? See it as a compounded reason to exit the market? None of these options can be good for tenants…..
The biggest problem we seem to have at the moment is government writing new laws that they then do not enforce. The requirement for agents to display fees to tenants and landlords being a prime example.
Snap!
“Every time you go to a restaurant you will incur some kind of cost. There’s no way of knowing what you’ll be charged until you get the bill, unless you think ahead and check the other side of the menu where they are legally required to publish their prices. When you’re hungry that’s not exactly the first thing on your mind, though, is it?”
OK lets drill down on this nonsense.
Quote ” The Debrief also claims: “Every time you move and go through a letting agent you will incur some kind of cost. There’s no way of knowing what you’ll be charged until you’re about to sign, unless you think ahead and check on their website where they are legally required to publish their fees”
Seriously, are they complaining that you may have to think ahead and check a website before signing a contract as a reason to scrub fees? Astonishing naivety and laziness .
Quote ” Another reader, aged 22, paid about £2,300 in total when she moved, saying “an extortionate” amount of which was in fees to the agent.
Obvious to us is that this cost was predominately deposit and advance rental. However by quoting a sum of money and linking it to fees, the perception is that the fees were £2,300
These petitions are just tiresome.
Here’s a thought let’s not ban fees, if the tenant doesn’t wish to pay the fee then simply do not pay the fee and go to an agent that charges the less and then we’ll see them again in six months when the agent that charges the lesser fee as screwed them over because they haven’t maintained their obligation as an agent and neither has the landlord under section 11 of the landlord and tenant act 1985 because the landlord also chose the agent because they were nice and cheap. Everybody moans when They have to pay yet when they go for the cheaper option there are even quicker to complain so again we are back to this vicious cycle. Also from personally running a Lettings business for seven years I understand the importance of charging fees and what’s for. if you do any type of work you should always charge a fee unless you are a charitable company of course. Time is money in this business. You go to a restaurant to eat food you’re going to pay extra money because obviously its got to cover their overheads and the staff payments as well as purchasing the food. you know full well that you could make that food just as well home for a fraction of the price but you want the benefits that come with eating out. Some fees are extortionate for example the name change on the tenancy agreement that’s a little bit too much, a small admin fee would be applicable however not £210! I have agents that charge less than in my area however you look at the service level they give is absolutely shocking. My company in particular our investors in people so they invest in training the staff which again isn’t free however in order for the staff to deliver an exceptional service they require training and who pays for the training??? who is going to pay for the professional camera to get the fantastic images we get in order to attract the right tenant in order to get the land of the best possible let? Who pays to keep the computers running? Who pays to fill the cars up every time we have the drive half an hour to do a viewing with someone that probably won’t even take the property because it’s free to view anyway so they lose nothing. I would like us to create a petition not to ban letting agent fees. you know what’s going to happen if they ban fees? where is the agent going to get the fees to run the business from? let me take a guess, the landlord? so agents are going to charge the landlord an extra amount of money in order to cover their overheads as well as make a profit because let’s face it it’s a business right? As a consequence of charging the landlord with more money what’s going to happen? The landlords are going to put that money back on the rent that they charge each month then we will see and inflation of rents and then who is going to suffer? The tenant? back to square one. So I summarise by saying do not ban letting agent fees if you don’t want to pay the fee go to a cheaper, agent receive a cheaper service and you get what you pay for. If I want a fancy car and I want the luxury of it and all the mod cons that go with it I’m going to have to pay for it I’m not going to go for a cheaper alternative or buy a second hand one and run the risk of it cocking up. let’s pay for it and get a decent one. most people out there that do work hard for a living and do make money will be able to afford it. Those people that don’t want to get anywhere with their lives and sit around and complain on the computers all day long will just fall into despair and sign a petition that will bite them on the bumcheeks!
That’s just my opinion……
I’d have read this if it had paragraph breaks!
If you’re a serious punter you put in the work to get the rewards – don’t just go to Foxtons, go to a smaller agent and see what they can do? It will no doubt be cheaper and they may well work harder to get your custom again in future.
If you’re a serious agent you know that everyone out there is struggling to rub two pennies together, so you alter fees accordingly to maximise profit while minimising customer dissatisfaction.
Why does EVERYTHING need a petition nowadays?
Because its simpler than putting in some effort to find out what a particular agent might charge you apparently.
I’m getting fed up with these half witted, idle oxygen thieves complaining about fees that they have made not the slightest attempt to investigate, of find out if they can get the same service cheaper elsewhere. What sort of education did they get that left them with the impression that everything in life should be free?
If they can do my job for nothing I’ll clear my desk today for them.
So lets all pay no taxes and expect everything such as the NHS for free. Let all teachers work for free. Get real; enforce agents publishing their charges so landlords and tenants know what fees they face; it is then their choice if they want to use the less reputable companies who charge £210 to change names on a rental agreement.
I would suggest anyone planning on moving should check with the agent asking them what the total cost will be and seeking out the most reasonable agents before they move, this alone would have a knock on effect where the most expensive agents will suffer loss in business and the most reasonable ones will thrive.
Another suggestion is simply done keep moving around that way you won’t incur any fees, after all if you had bought the property would you still be moving?
The again you could look at it in comparison to someone who sells their home and moves how much it cost the, a letting agent does roughly the same amount of work and though some of them are rip off’s some others charge a lot less.
When you go out to work would you like it if the purchaser of the product you produce or the service you offer said you should get less wages, I for one work ****** hard for what I earn and think you should try looking at it again from a different angle.
A cap maybe but not a ban… a lot of businesses would likely go under without those fees being charged.
It seems that most agents commenting are saying that they need these extra fees to survive. However, I consider that the fees we charge for admin and referencing are more than justified, as it can take quite a long time and a lot of effort to process a reference application. The lady who I think started this petition made a point that a reference only costs about £10, so why are the agents “ripping them off” by charging higher fees. The reason is that a member of staff has to process these applications, and for most applications, we find that the prospective tenants do not complete all the information and do not provide all the documentation requested, so we have to go back and forth asking them for information, and requesting additional documentation (such as bank statements, payslips, proof of residence), and search around for employer email addresses and phone numbers, because they are not provided. Someone has to complete and submit the application to the referencing company, and then follow up with the reference company additional requirements, which can sometimes be quite onerous. For some applications, we find that we are working on them for between 2 to 4 days. Therefore, the £10 cost of the reference is not relevant (unless it is just a quick credit check), as a member of staff has to be paid for their time in processing this. Most landlords want a full reference to be undertaken, including employer and previous landlord refs, and this is all very time consuming. Everyone has to be paid for the job that they do, and the tenant referencing is a major part of renting a property. With regard to other fees, such as change of name on a tenancy, we all know that Foxtons fees are higher than other agents, so it is not fair to use their costs in comparison to other agents.