Hello everyone!
Recently just moved to England and took a short-let from an agency.
The agency charged me quite a sum for Tenant Fees. Only a few days later I understood there is a “Tenant Fees Act” that doesn’t allow this.
Does the “Tenant Fees Act” also apply to short-let?
Since this is my first rental in England I’'m afraid they scammed me into paying this.
Can you elaborate what fees the agency charged you? There is a list of permitted fees within the Tenant Fees Act so it depends what these are, so it’s not a blanket ban on all fees. Does your tenancy state it’s a Short Term Let or is it an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (that just happens to be short term)?
Hi Mita 
The agency charged me for “Short Let Tenant Fee”, there was also a section in the contract about it named “Tenant fees”, i’ve added an image of the payment and the section in the contract.
Write to the agent with a formal complaint about them taking fees in breach if the TFA. Ask for the money back within 2 weeks. If they fail to repay, then you can escalate your complaint to whichever redress scheme they belong to.
You can search online for “Tenant Fees Act 2019:
Guidance for tenants” to find the official guidance document from the government (it’s on gov.uk). It also tells you what to do in your current situation. It’s over 80 pages, nobody can give you the full advice of this pdf here.
Wrote back to Foxtons asking for the money back.
They replied that the Tenants Fee Act does not apply to a short-let.
Found these:
What type of tenancy agreement do you have?
It says “Tenancy Agreement”, that’s all. Foxtons claims it’s not an AST because it’s a short-let and it says Tenancy Agreement and not AST
They may be wrong, but it depends on the circumstances. If its serviced accommodation or a holiday let or you declared that your main home was somewhere else then it might be a licence or a non-assured tenancy. It may be an Assured Tenancy, (non-shorthold), which I heard recently that some agents are giving to get around the TFA. If it is, then the agreement would have to say that it was not an AST. Do any of these things apply?
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
