Good morning, my name is Emily. Me and my partner have a 6 month rental contract that will end next week. I contacted the letting agent to say we are happy to stay and renew. They have replied that as we paid 6 months up front (because my partner didn’t pass the referencing at the time) now we will have to pay an admin fee of £50 + VAT for the referencing to go ahead and arrange a new contract for 12 months with a break clause at 6 months and also increase the rent by £25 on month 6. My questions are, can I refuse to pay de admin fee as I thought it’s illegal to charge fees to tenants? Do we have to go ahead with the referencing for my partner (which is fine as he is employed now) or can we just pay monthly and go onto a periodic contract, as I’ve read this happens automatically? Many thanks!
Don’t renew the contract. Inform them you are staying on the current contract as a periodic. Just because you are not renewing does not mean your contract ends it becomes a periodic contract by default. Then fees are moot.
You can’t charge for referencing!
If there is a rent review clause in your contract read it and see what it says
Fees are illegal
Ask them for the redress scheme they are registered with as you are reporting them for illegal fee charging. That should work
As A_A says, they can’t charge you the fee. I also agree with the suggestion to stay on a periodic tenancy, although the agent may not agree to it. If you see yourself there beyond the next six months then you will probably have to sign a new agreement if the agent insists, although I would decline to pay another 6 months up front if I were you.