Letting agent named and shamed by national newspaper

“I can replace you easily. Pay or you're out,” agent tells tenants renting £3,600-a-month house and questioning four-figure contract change charges.

The letting agent in question – Abdul Azad, director of London-based Next Move – may live to regret his words now the tenants in question have told The Telegraph how he charged them £1,260 to change two names on a tenancy agreement.

Four residents were sharing the £3,600 house in Islington when two decided to move out. Next Move charged the remaining pair an “agreement and reference fee” for two incoming tenants (£360), a reference fee for the two tenants who were staying (£120) and an “amendment fee” for the two tenants leaving (£720). It added a further “reference fee” of £60.

The tenants questioned the four-figure total but Azad told them to pay up or leave before deciding to evict them anyway.

When questioned by the newspaper Azad said the charges were justified and that in most cases tenants agreed to the fee and that their contract would be amended “within minutes”.

When asked why Next Move charged almost 10 times than a neighbouring agency, Azad responded: “I won’t answer until you tell me why The Telegraph charges more than The Sun newspaper.”

He later blamed the eviction on the landlord, an account disputed by the tenants.

Are you the landlord in question? If you were would you be happy with the agent’s behaviour?