If you are a landlord in England, Wales or Northern Ireland then you will know all about those fees your tenants have to pay when they sign a rental contract with a letting agent.
Tenants can be charged anything from £50 up to £500 to check-in or check-out when moving.
In Scotland there are no fees because they have been abolished. But did you know that the government is considering scrapping most, if not all, tenant fees charged by agents across the UK?
Fresh research from Upad, one of the UK’s largest online letting agents, shows that 54% of landlords are not aware of the government’s plan to abolish tenant fees, after Baroness Grenader put forward the changes to the Renters’ Rights Bill which includes scrapping fees charged by letting agents and occasionally by landlords.
Unsurprisingly, many tenants are in favour of the move, while the study seems to suggest that those landlords that aware of the planned changes are rather relaxed about it.
But Upad believe that the government has got its priorities wrong by planning to scrap tenant fees.
The company points out that when the tenants were asked if they had a choice between capping the rent and capping the fees, almost 60% said they would rather cap the rent.
A Upad statement suggests that ‘maybe the government should focus more of its efforts on increasing supply rather than the removal of tenant’s fees, as this would reduce the rent prices nationally and save tenants more money in the long run’.