Admin fees ? Abolished 1st of June?

Tenant Discussion
1

Hi I’ve received this email today. I believed admin fees were now abolished ??
Any help would be helpful

Good morning Philip,

Thank you for your enquiry regarding the property we have to let in Circuit Close. I have tried calling and left a voicemail for you.

To let you know, the upfront fees for this property are:

A month’s rent in advance: £425

Deposit: £575

Admin fee: £270

If you are interested, please contact our office to discuss further.

Kind regards

Annie Southall

Lettings Administrator

L & A L ETTINGS

Tel: 01902 560408

Email: info@l-a-lettings.co.uk

Web: www.l-a-lettings.co.uk

2

Hi Phill,

Yes, the £270 admin fee is now a prohibited payment.

The deposit is also unlawful! Deposits are capped at 5 weeks’ rent now. If one month’s rent is £425, then the maximum deposit they can take is £490!

This is a flagrant violation of the Tenant Fees Act. So frustrating. Infuriating really to me as a tenant.

If you paid those costs, then the agent could be fined up to £5,000.

I don’t know why some agents feel like they can continue to chance their arm at ripping tenants off with these huge fees :frowning:

Sam

3

Oh! And those fees aren’t mentioned on their website either, which is also not allowed.

4

Sam who could they be reported to? Would it be the local council?

5

@pokerfroggy would you be interesting in speaking to someone about this?

6

Hi Sam thanks for the first information and yes, I called them up and asked why they were trying to charge me admin fee’s they said it was an admin error and would I still be interested in seeing the property I also questioned the deposit amount they said we could come to a mutual agreement.

7

Admin error my foot. Theres no mutual agreement. Its not more than 5 weeks. Be wary.

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8

Fab - I’ve sent you a direct message with some more info. You should have a notification on the top right of the page.

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9

It’s sharp practices like these that get all landlords a bad name.
None of my tenants have ever had to pay more than the £20 credit check and they don’t even pay that now.
If I were a tenant I would be very cautious with these agents and never pay any of their “charges” until I had fully investigated that the charges were valid.
Hope you can get it sorted.

1 Like