Disgusting letting agency fees

[cheekymummy89]

Me and dh viewed a property 3 weeks ago which we both agreed we liked, son we asked all the usual questions about upfront fees, etc. We asked if we were to get a dog what would this cost additional to the asked fees. We were told it would be £42 pet deed. So we agreed this was affordable and set up a date to go in and sign for a credit reference check and employment check. 3 days before this I was asked to pay the application fee of £164 a reference fee of £210 and a right to rent fee of £36 ontop of this we had to pay a reservation fee of £230 which would be put towards the first months rent. Since we were last in the office we have passed the said checks but my dh mentioned we have now got a dog etc and that we would like to arrange payment of the £42 pet deed, the agency then replied she would have to check with the landlord!! (We were told this was OK!!) She came back and said we would have to pay a additional £575 ontop of the deposit to keep a dog in the property!!! Now this was never mentioned throughout our telephone conversations otherwise I would not have bothered going through the hassle of the checks being done on us as there are cheaper agencies in our area. Is there anyway we can get the fees we paid back know as they misinformed us of the fees payable? I've just lost £640 if we cannot get this back
Thanks

You could if you squint really hard say that the £575 isnt a cost as it is on the deposit and so comes back at the end of the tenancy. I suspect that the landlord had not been told, lazy useless agent.

It is indeed outrageous - but dont cut off nose to spite face if the property is otherwise good.

Are the agents members of any trade body?

In Barcelona - non refundable agency fee is 10% of one year's rent. Standard deposit is 2 month plus the first month's rent and often "contract fees" of about 100 euros

Therefore - rent an apartment for 700 euros a months - you need at least 3000 euros upfront - 840 of which you never see again so to me it doesn't sound bad really. I would expect you to have to pay an extra deposit fee to have a dog, to be honest - they are smelly and likely to cause other damage.

It is bad that you weren't fully informed of all of the extra fees but moving can be expensive.

Is it a fee or a deposit? I can understand charging a higher deposit to fog owners tbh, although of course you should have been informed in advance.

Fog owner? Wouldn't rent to them!
dog owners

We paid £300 ish non refundable fees when we moved in, plus one month's rent deposit. We have just paid a £150 renewal fee. Absolute bollocks, but sadly letting agemts know that we are over a barrel and will have to pay whatever figure they pluck from the sky.

You should just pay the deposit and think of it as being in savings ☺

Not surprising they want a high upfront dog deposit. Tbh id have queried £42 because it sounds very cheap. Landlords often hate dogs and other pets because of potential for damage.

You should have been told up front about the additional deposit so I would fight them on this and demand the rest of the money back if you are not willing to pay it. You specifically asked them.and it was their error.

They told you it was £42 in fees for the dog, the day of it is an increase in the deposit not a fee. They haven't done anything wrong, if you like the house and can afford it then pay it. I've always had to pay extra deposit for having my dog it's pretty much a given.

Don't have an issue in paying extra deposit for a dog. I don't dispute this at all, what I do have an issue with is being told the fee was £42 only. No mention at the time of having to pay double the deposit which we don't have. Like I said there are cheaper agencies in this area and when we have asked others about dogs they have come back with a cheaper amount. If this was said to us when we asked I would not have agreed to pay the reservation deposit and referencing fees and I'd have carried on looking. We are not in a situation where we need to move asap and we just seen this property liked it and thought wow! £42 for the dog. All we were told was call us when you get the dog and we will ask for payment over the phone or via bank transfer. I just want what I've paid them returning so we can continue to look with one of the cheaper agencies who have only asked for an extra £200 to keep a dog.