to think £485 is extortionate for a rental check-in fee?

[lill72]

This is the reduced rate - it was supposed to be £900! As they failed to mention at the beginning, they took £500 off. It still seems way too much. Why do tenants have to pay for this?

What should I do?

Thats ridiculous. Moving at the moment and ive been quoted between 250 and 350 which I still think is high has if we rent through our current agency it will be half price. Is that excluding deposit? What have you paid/ commited to already?

If that's just a check, excluding deposit, it is ridiculous. Fees are getting higher as letting agents realise they've got people over a barrel but generally they are 50-250 and personally I think that's pushing it for a credit check and couple of references.

That is horrendous.

We have already paid £300 deposit - which will go towards our first months rent.

Then we paid £370 for reference checks for two people.

This £484 is to check-in. ie for a person to do an inventory on a 2 bed, newly refurbished flat - not furnished. Seems ludicrous. As they had forgotten to mention initiallt, thry knowed it down fron £900 to £485. He sasd it takes someone a few hours to do the inventory and a report - ah really , that much?

help. I dont want to pay.

£485 I meant.

Why do you have to pay for the inventory- surely that's the landlords responsibility?

I can see if demand is high they might try and pass it on to you but if they didn't memtion it I wouldn't pay any of it.

They clearly know they're in the wrong if they've offered a discount although I've no idea how they could possibly ever justify £900.

I don't know whose responsibility it is - but surely it has to be the landlords.

It seems fishy that they have offered me a discount already.

I want to fight it - by asking for a break down. Wondering what other people have paid so I can go in fighting with an argument.

Drop Shelter a line and ask them. When I had trouble with a landlord not giving a deposit back I downloaded an excellent letter provided by Shelter. Money came back within 24 hours.

I suspect what they are doing is illegal, if they didn't mention the charge up front.

It doesn't take a few hours to do an inventory and write a check in report if you know what you're doing.

The company I work for don't charge that. We charge a £80 admin fee which covers everything from references, to inventory etc. then deposit.

£379 for reference checks! Holy shit.

The check in fee is usually covered by the landlords, and the check out fee by the tenants.

We paid 300 for the check in clerk to do a 3 bed FURNISHED house.

I pay for the inventory on my rental. It was something like £100 or £200. It takes a long time the first time they do it, but is much faster after that. (I did it before I left the UK as I was too mean to pay the high fees!)

I would call round a few agencies in your area and see what they charge. From my experience of renting, some agencies use every opportunity to try and get more money from you so if they are expensive now, they will be expensive all the way down the line.

Your landlord may not even know what the charges are. I don't for my mine but I picked the one with the lowest fees when we chose the agent because I hate tenants being ripped off. You could ask to speak to them.

The agent showing me around the property did not mention it initially. When I went it to pay the deposit, hs boss said it hadn't been mentioned so he would take £500 off the price and pay it himself. I didnt really know what he was talking about at the ime and assumed this was normal. Only now I see what it is for and how crazy it is.

I know of a local letting/estate agent who charges tenants a reference fee every year if they renew their contract in the same property. It doesn't matter if they have paid their rent on time every month and keep the property in good order. Such a rip off.

he would take £500 off the price and pay it himself.

There's proof it's absolute bollocks- hell would freeze over before an estate agent forked out £500 of his own money for an inventory!

That is ridiculous! I'd ring a few places locally and find out what the charge.

This property is managed by someone else - as the landlord owns a lot of properties. We have to pay this fee not to the agency but to the management company, in cash , on the day. very fishy! help!!

Sad to say an amount like this isn't a surprise to me especially in the south east.

It is just profiteering - as someone said, they know they have you over a barrel. 99% of landlords will pass on as many of their costs as they can, even though it should be part of their business expenses.

An agent tried to charge us £598 to move into a tiny studio flat - £100 more than a month's rent! We objected and got it reduced to £400 - whoop whoop .

Then it is £100 or so to renew the contract (if on a fixed term) when all they have to do is amend the dates on the original and print it out. Then another £90 to check out. It is outrageous!

We paid £460 when we moved 6 months ago into a 1 bed and were terrifed we'd have to pay out all over again when the landlords dropped the bombshell that they were going to sell this spring, thankfully they've now decided to wait a bit.

It is sadly all legal - Labour were going to regulate the lettings industry to prevent such practices if they got elected 5 years ago, but the Conservatives got in and obviously they don't give a shit about things like this - unless it affects landlords. Bastards

I'm not a lawyer but I can't see how you have any obligation to pay a fee due to a management company with whom you have no contract.

The fee is payable by the owner who has engaged their services.

The issue is going to be getting back what you've already paid and finding somewhere else if you don't want to pay this fee- are there other suitable properties in the area with other agencies?

If not, as unscrupulous as it might be, they have you over a barrel.

YANBU. We're landlords and charged our tenants £35 each for referencing and £110 in total for inventory - This is SE home counties. That's how much it cost so we just passed it straight on. We'll pay the check out fee.
That's the problem with agents, they'll siphon off money in fees at every stage so its the tenant who gets screwed over.

I just don't think the government realise that renters have to budget for £40 a month if they end up moving once a year - and often this is because landlords sell up rather than the tenants whim. If you end up moving every 6 months like we nearly had to, that's £80 a month to have to find!! Plus the costs of actually moving the furniture - anything from £200 upwards if you can't do it all yourself. It is crippling

We really want this property - as it is close to school/best we have seen.

I am deff going to object. I can ask for a breakdown of what it covers surely?

I agree pod - we only moved house last year when i was preganant so stressful. now to do it again. so stressful and more fees. need this to be illegal

What do you mean when you said that the deposit is to go towards the first month's rent? It should be held securely in a separate scheme.

Since October last year all letting agents must belong to one of 3 government approved schemes for dealing with complaints so I would suggest you tell them you think these charges are (a) unfair and (b) weren't properly advertised and ask which scheme they belong to along with their own company complaints procedure. Simply by asking this might magically make the charges significantly drop but if not, I would suggest you follow through with a formal complaint.

Before you do any of this I would also somehow try & contact the landlord to reassure them that whilst you're complaining about the excessive charges you are not an unreasonable tenant & certainly wouldn't shirk your rental responsibilities (in case the agent decides to tell their client you clearly can't afford the fees & warn against renting you the property)