AIBU to think £600 admin fees to rent a flat is daylight robbery?

[Birdy28]

DP and I are having to move as current landlord is selling up after we have only been in the property for 6 months so money is tight.

Saw a flat on Saturday . Property is in this area for rent is very scarce and we only have 2 months to find somewhere.

The credit checks and admin fees are £600 inc deposit to move in (nearly £2500 altogether). Last time we paid this it was £200 for admin fees plus deposit with another agent. AIBU to think they are taking the mickey to charge £600 plus deposit?

I is this really the going rate with high street estate agents?

Haha it gets worse!

Flat A as above has fallen through as despite letting agent telling us we can have unfurnished, landlord will only let a furnished. So that sorted that one out.

I was contacted by another of their branches today about a two bed house. Their fees are as follows:

£120 for credit checks
£155 for check in inventory
£600 for "admin fees"

So £875 in total for fees plus 6 weeks deposit and a holding fee (holding fee is refundable)

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!

OP, do you live in a town containing a fairly famous university by any chance?

DH and I walked away from a flat for which the letting agent was trying to charge a £200 'inventory fee' on top of all of the rest. Obligatory, so £200 to have the letting agent help you fill in a damn form that you could easily do yourself.

£200 'inventory fee'

that makes sense. if you are buying the "inventory". not listing it on a sheet of paper.

written guarantee

I don't understand what you mean? Every place I've ever rented the inventory is a document that lists the condition of the property and any furniture room by room - usually I've been given a copy of the closing inventory of the previous tenant and asked to make any changes or comments I see fit. The 'service' which they said you had to use literally involved this same process, but a letting agent being there for the ten minutes it takes to do.

I don't understand what you mean?

the quotes on inventory are misplaced. It was a joke. I was saying that 200 pounds is an extortionate amount. it only makes sense if you are buying all the inventory, not merely listing it.

YANBU. Particularly if it includes paying for the lease. That's legal work and it is generally unlawful to charge for work that a solicitor can do unless you are a solicitor. The line with leases seems to have become very blurred, but it doesn't disguise the fact that they are charging near enough (or possibly more) than solicitor's rates to draw up a lease when they are most likely not legally qualified.

I am a solicitor and a friend asked me to draw up a lease for her tenant, by the time I had put all the various terms and conditions in it took me quite a while, but I only charged her £100 for it.

I'm particularly loving the fees for annual tenancy renewal. You can so easily write tacit relocation into the lease, or even an annual multiplier increasing the rent by the RPI, if not you just write out to the tenant with a letter containing an addendum to the lease with the new rent. I would say that takes me from zero units to at most 2 units. Each hour is split into 10 6 minute units, to which my hourly rate of say £250 is charged. So I would charge £50 plus VAT for doing it, and thats a properly qualified solicitor, not someone who could have no qualifications at all and for all you know be a school leaver. And only if I had been remiss stupid enough not to write tacit relocation or an annual multiplier into the lease in the first place. Charging £120 or £150 for doing this would represent a very slow drawing up of a basic letter at a very high rate. For a solicitor.