Do tenants renewing get charged by the agent?

[timetoask]

Its the first time we've rented, we have just agreed to renew our tenancy and we have just received an invoice for 120 pounds for the renewal of our tenancy.

Should this charge be only for the landlord? We rent out a flat and we get charged to renew that, which I understand. But why should the tenant get charged??

This happened us when we renewed with Foxtons. The Landlord was also charged a renewal fee. I think the Landlord was even more annoyed about our renewal fee than his own. He paid our renewal fee and vowed never to use Foxtons again.

I'm a landlord and said I wouldn't pay the agents. They huffed and puffed and I said they were welcome to lose me as a client and give up their 10% management fee. They decided I didn't have to pay.

When renting I asked what would happen if I refused to pay and was told I'd be evicted. I called their bluff and said I doubted they'd lose a good tenant an have to find a new one and they decided I didn't have to pay.

It amazes me the things people agree to.

I checked the tenancy agreement that we signed and unfortunately it is mentioned in there!!! We came back from abroad and were desperate to move into a home in a hurry, I guess we signed without checking properly.

I am so annoyed. I had to pay, but I will NEVER use R*mans for anything. What a ripoff.

I called them to complain and apparently its for "admin work"!!! It shouldn't be allowed.'

It's completely normal but very annoying. Our landlord.suggested we ditch the.agency at 6 months and we now rent directly from him with no renewal fees, just a rolling contract. Is this something you can look into before the next renewal period.

We've not paid. Our letter came in March.

Since then we've had the cooker, boiler and toilet repaired using the agent.

No problems at all.

I believe it's not uncommon but a TOTAL rip off.

You don't have to renew a tenancy agreement. After the initial period it automatically becomes a statutory periodic tenancy... effectively a rolling tenancy. No signatures or paperwork are required.

In theory they could try to evict you if you refuse to sign up to a new fixed period but they'll be stupid if they do. No one wants to lose a good tenant and it's expensive for them to evict you.

I know that's the theory nocake, but it's difficult when the bastardy letting agents insist that if you don't sign for a new fixed period you will have to move out at the end of current tenancy. I want to just go onto a rolling contract at the end of our fixed period, but I will be 8 months pregnant when that happens and just can't cope with the stress of agents saying they will evict us. So we will probably end up renewing and paying stupid fees. Grrrrr.

When we rented in London we refused to pay - it was one of the bigger EAs. We just ignored their letters. Nothing much they could do. The charge was completely unreasonable.

PS We rented with them for 3 years. No problems when we left. (They wouldn't have had a leg to stand on anyhow)

If you're continuing to pay rent then it's bloody hard for them to evict you. If you have evidence that the only reason they're evicting you is because you won't sign up for another fixed period then it's even harder. They will almost certainly just give in, as Zhaghzhagh's agent did.

Yep! But it was £50 last time not £120!! To print of a piece of paper and get two bloody signatures?!

I refused to pay it as I wanted a rolling contract, this was eventually agreed after much huffing and puffing. Then they called to say the Landlord wouldn't agree to a rolling contract. By this point I was so annoyed by all the other major problems with the house (mould and damp that appeared 2 months after moving in, they had redecorated before I moved in) that I moved out.

Also, they tried taking part of my deposit because I hadn't scraped the mould off the walls and cleaned them with bleach before I left!!

Got the full deposit back and reported the house to environmental health!

well, they tried to charge us 250£ every year for a new photicopy of their standard contract.
we kindly declined and never paid. stayed there 5 years...

When we rented, we initially signed for 12 months with agency then rolling contract direct with landlord (who had carried out all repairs etc through previous 12months anyway) Both parties much happier with this, both parties saved money!

All I would say is check inventory etc is in order as we had a fee issues with landlord asking for stuff when we moved out as he didn't have original inventory. We did, everything was there...he obviously thought he had better/more stuff than he did have!

This is a common trick by all letting agents.

We now insist on signing 12 month contracts fix term and then just move to an AST rolling contract after that without renewal.

All agents try this 6 month renewal thing. It all about generating fees. Most landlords don't even know that it is completely unecessary and get conned into paying fees too.

Wherever posisble I talk direct to landolord at the end of atenancy and agree a rolling contract. I am a good tenant and the landlords like that and they like the fact that they can tell me to go if they like or have me stay at 2 months notice. They usually dont and mostly I stay several years in the same place.

Renewal fees total rip off I paid £40 for 6 months, been in the property 3 years now and the estate agents have put it up to £50. I recently spoke to them about this they said it was admin fees etc. I did say this is a genaric form which is kept on your pc she denied it and said no it’s wrote out each time what a load of bull, total money making its disgraceful.

zombie so hopefully the clueless tenant got informed.

at some stage fees to tenants will be banned. agents will simply double the charge to landlords. at that point i will not offer a fixed term after the initial one - i already let the tenant decide if they want a rolling tenancy.