To feel these charges are a bit ott (renting)

[honeybeeq]

Moving soon and finally found a good house :) just had a little check of the fees and they break down to;
£240 x2 for referencing
Accompanied check in- £72 per applicant
Inventory fee- £66 per applicant
Pet consent fee- £60 per applicant
Right to rent- £24.60 per applicant

Deposit- 1200
First months rent- £950.

Why are they charging for things twice? We do have a dog to be fair but we don't have a dog each and all their fees are coming out of one account. It's so off putting! I can't decide if it would be easier to just have DH do the application and have me as a licensee as I am on a zero hours contract but he's on a permanent one.

Anyway- AIBU to think these fees are a bit ott?

What’s the difference between right to rent and referencing?
Yes it’s all insane but far too normal.

It does seem OTT. We have always paid fees per tenancy when we have rented and not per applicant.

@jay55 I think right to rent might be about right to be in the uk. But referencing is a credit check with a landlord reference

wtf is right to rent! Sounds very maky uppy to me.

I agree thst these things don't all need to be per applicant.

Hacks me off to read this as I pay 35p per applicant for a credit check

The reference check I last had (October) did both identify and credit (and previous landlord) checks in one. So i was wondering if they were charging 24.50 for you showing your passport in person or something. I know it’s small fry compared to the rest, was just curious.

Sadly very common and they be charging the ll too. From memory they cant charge you both ways so charge for a check in but cant charge for a check out. Theres some new rules somewhere. Gov bought them in or something to stop this overcharging. Think its slightly ott re charges...thinking you might be going through a big firm in london

It's just a bit wanky isn't it? It's going to cost a fortune and we're moving because of redundancy and not because we wanted to leave our city. It is a nice house though

They are cheeky fuckers. They will be charging the landlord for all this too so actually they're charging three times for what is probably an hour's work all in.

We live in Scotland now where all these fees are illegal and letting agents seem to be doing just fine without them.

A private landlord or letting agent must do a 'right to rent check' before they rent you a home in England. This means they must check your immigration status and that of anyone aged 18 or over who'll be living with you. They'll ask to see your passport or other official documents that prove your immigration status.

But check-in, inventory and pet should be per application not per applicant...

Gosh, I hope you really love the house because I'd struggle to pay all that on principle. It surely only takes the letting agents a few hours to do all the paperwork, certainly doesn't justify charging you the best part of a grand! How is something like an "inventory fee" per applicant?? Honestly you might want to email them and ask for a broken down invoice of what exactly these 'fees' are paying for, and negotiate a discount.

Query the dog one at least. As you say just one dog. And the inventory fee - just one inventory.

I'd also ask the LA for the breakdown as Egg suggests.

I think these fees after general outcry are just about to be rigorously regulated. So the LA might be making hay while sun shines. If they continue to muck you around, I'd send an email to your local MP detailing the charges.

I hate renting and cheeky fucker estate agents and their fees. I thought half of these were being outlawed?
But yes. Definitely argue several on per application not applicant. That's just rude.

I wish we could follow Scotland and ban these outrageous letting fees. As a PP has said, I do credit checks for rental applicants as part of my job and it costs us less than £1 per person. It really is outrageous. I hope you really like the house OP!

Just another way that renters are treated like scum!

Well DH has challenged the fees and offered to contact the landlord directly and arrange a tenancy agreement that won't cost us a fortune.. (as he does this as part of his job)

We like the house a lot. But not enough to pay all these fees when it comes down to it.

The ridiculous charges that letting agents get away with is nothing short of criminal

Right to rent is a legally required check for no EU residents, so no idea why you have to pay for the check if you are an EU resident (I carry out those checks as part of my job at a property management company)

With regards to the charge for a inventory - why would you, as a tenant be charged for an inventory? We would charge a landlord to have an inventory carried out on the property at the start of a new tenancy, but then we give the new tenant a copy of it when they move in

All fees to a tenant should be stopping next year (to follow on from Scotland) so it sounds like the company you are using will lose a whole load of revenue as they won't be able to charge any of those fees to the tenants!