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’.
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In practical terms what will happen is that the costs of tenanting a property will be paid for monthly through the rent rather than all up front as now. Unfortunately it could end up costing tenants who stay more than 12 months more.
Renewal fees are iniquitous for both the landlord and tenant. Fees to tenants up front should just be enough to ensure they are not wasting everyone's time but otherwise all agents fees for managing tenants and properties should be paid out of rents.
An up front fee to ensure no time wasters but anything else can so easily be included in the rent. Tenants will lose out in any event as landlords will want any costs previously attributable to tenants recovered over the first rental period even if it is a 6 month term. No recovery means the landlord will decline renting the property.
Bit of a no brainer but then we are dealing with our government who regularly demonstrate their lack of brains - so no change there!
Does that include the inventory fee? ie the tenant is responsible for either the check in or check out report.
Totally unreasonable to abolish the fees as they reflect actual costs. Aggregating them into increased monthly rents will disproportionally cost long term tenants, increase tax bills for landlords (and probably increase the overall tac take vs charging corporation tax on the agents fee). Increasingly I see more and more consumer pricing which reflects underlying costs-a effective market-why should renting be going the other way.
The only thing the law should address here is the abuse of up front fees. These should simply be capped to a percentage of the monthly rent.
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