An astonishing number of letting agents are not displaying their fees in the first city outside London which looks to be taking a serious interest in industry compliance.
Earlier this month, Sheffield City Council announced that it had in the previous six weeks fined 11 letting agents a total of £37,000 for not belonging to a redress scheme.
The council said it had investigated 200 letting agents in the city.
Now an agent in Sheffield who has asked for anonymity has asked the council to look at a spreadsheet it has drawn up of its competitors not displaying their fees.
The spreadsheet appears to show the astounding extent to which the law is being flouted, with the large majority of letting agents not showing any fees at all on their websites.
Out of 81 on the list, just four are compliant, meaning that 77 are non-compliant. A handful of nine show some, but not all, fees.
Cabinet member for housing Cllr Jayne Dunn, and Paul Rotherham, of the council’s private rented standards team, have both been asked for their comments.
The spreadsheet, which was also sent to EYE, shows only Northwood, Belvoir, Ewemove and independent Andersons on the list as being compliant with their statutory duty.
It shows that the very large majority of other agents on the list flout the law by showing no fees at all. Some show only tenant application fees, but not fees charged to landlords, and also not extra fees such as those that arise during a tenancy.
We should note that the list does not include all letting agents in Sheffield, at least some of whom – for example, Sheffield Residential – are compliant.
The legal duty to show fees has been in force since May 27 under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
It stipulates that agents must list their fees on the agent’s own website and prominently in their offices.
The list must include a description of each fee and what it covers, and include all fees and charges payable to the agent. Where fees cannot be determined in advance, there must be a description of how they are calculated.
As well as displayable fees payable by a tenant, the list must show fees payable by landlords.
Trading Standards police the requirement and agents can be fined up to £5,000.
It’s taken a LONG time for agents around here to catch up – but there are still holes, and some of the agents make the information really hard to find on their websites. We’ve kept our local trading standards office and numerous other across the country very busy. Not normally our style but if we are having to tow the line, everyone else should too. The larger chain agents are definitely the worst!
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Footnote, our local trading standards wrote in one email response:
“You should also be aware that their have been many cuts within Trading Standards and many authorities are not able to advise traders or investigate individual complaints.”
Quoted as written… like most things in this industry then, those that are good agents will tow the line, those that can be bothered won’t and may never be told off or shell out a fine.
I consider myself to be a good agent. Never a hidden fee, always willing to do that little bit more. Without 100% policing it is slowly becoming harder to stay motivated; the hope of a real and positive industry change seems just as distant as when I came in 16 years ago. And this article really does leave me thinking, why should we good agents bother when there is no one supporting us.
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This issue highlights why all those MP’s calling for regulation need to focus on getting current requirements policed. Perhaps Shelter et al could focus on this rather than persecuting the entire industry.
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You’d think that ARLA would be leading by example on this, but having just taken a quick look at some NFOPP Board & ARLA Regional Representative websites I quickly found three (out of seven) that either have them very well hidden, or else are failing to display landlord fees.
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No longer an ARLA member for this sort of reason. Used to be really proud to say I was a member of ARLA and the NAEA. Then realised it was wasted pride.
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Glad to see that this is being looked into. The rules re publishing fees was well published and there are no excuses. Trading Standards should start be issuing warning letters giving a breach notice and compliance deadline.
That will bring most into line and then they can focus on the hard core offenders.
As to the ‘anonymous agent’, it was not us, but the laws of deduction deduction suggest it will be one of the other 3 compliant agents. Good luck to them.
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Or perhaps one of the many not on the list who has a lot of spare time on their hands…?
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