Two councils publish league tables on how much agents charge tenants

New data on how much local letting agents charge in tenants’ fees has been published by the councils of Bournemouth and Brighton & Hove.

The data has come from Generation Rent, and in both cases claims that Leaders charges the most – £624 in both places.

Allison Thompson, managing director at Leaders, yesterday evening told EYE: “We believe our fees represent great service and value.

“We can’t comment on competitors’ fees, and nor would we want to as each company will justify its own service levels.”

The ‘league tables’ now published by the two local authorities show major discrepancies in the fee levels charged.

In Brighton & Hove, for example, two tenants embarking on a tenancy can expect to pay from £200 – less than two-thirds of Leaders’ fees.

The average in Brighton & Hove is £447. In Bournemouth, the average is £432.

The league tables also show which letting agents are not displaying their fees. Generation Rent says it will be undertaking further research in other towns and cities, and is appealing for local volunteers to help.

It says: “Even though the Government says fees are on their way out, we aren’t taking anything for granted and will be continuing to gather information about letting fees in other parts of the country.

“This will help more renters who still have at least a year to wait until fees are banned in law.

“It will also help us strengthen the evidence supporting the reform which we will present to the Government when they invite responses to their proposals.”

http://lettingfees.co.uk/c/brighton-and-hove-city-council/agents/

lettingfees.co.uk/c/bournemouth-borough-council/

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24 Comments

  1. Will

    How very nice to see that councils in these two locations are wasting council tax payers money on areas outside of their normal remit.  I think it is time council tax payers lobby for a reduction in council tax where councils waste money on such matters.

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    1. observer

      Dear Will,
      The data came from Generation Rent so there was no investment of time by the Council.
      What they are providing is transparent information regarding how much it costs a tenant to rent through each agency.
      I understand that letting agents and estate agents hate the idea of transparency but you will find most people actually prefer it.
      Given that you are unable to read prior to typing I look forward to an embittered response.
      All the best.

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  2. Headache

    Should be mandatory for all councils to publish.Name and shame.

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  3. Will

    Such a function could be performed and published by partisan charities  such as Generation Rant or Shelter. This is a misuse of council funds in publishing such information.  I have no problem with naming and shaming where there is abuse but at present we have unfettered attacks on every landlord which is unacceptable. Bullying by media is no more acceptable than gross overcharging by any agent. We now seem to live in a country with no moral standards.

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    1. observer

      As above, this data did come from Generation Rent.
      The moral standards in question here are those of letting agents so I am glad that you agree.

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      1. Beano

        You seem very vocal on this subject Observer. I dont disagree this information is good out there in the public domain. I look forward to seeing my local council do the same for lawyers, accountants, charity director wage levels, supermarkets etc.

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        1. Will

          Beano,  you seem to have forgotten the overpaid CEO of Councils!

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  4. smile please

    The thing i find most amusing is

    The average seems to be circa £450 and most expensive is £624 – And this is seen as too expensive and prohibitive to tenants so the Government want to do away with fees to tenants.

    £450 for all your legal fees to move home does not seem excessive to me, am i missing something?

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    1. FromTheHip64

      Yes, you’re missing the fact that the tenant isn’t your client….the landlord is. Charge him. The tenant shouldn’t pay for anything other than referencing, and we all know that doesn’t cost more than £30/£40. Roll on the new legislation. Letting agents have been ripping off tenants for far too long.

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      1. smile please

        You are so naive.
        How about advice, time, ongoing questions and concerns. 
        When a a property is sold the buyer and seller both incurr fees as they both need protection.
        The only difference is it is dealt with by solicitors.
        I would happily act as a middle man and have the both the tenant and landlord use a solicitor to draw up and agree a lease and all the additional dispersments.
        However you will see both sides pay in excess of £1000 
        A good letting agent has a fair AST and a lot of work is done for both sides regarding deposit, inventory, check in , check out, referenceing, viewings and advice.
         

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      2. Will

        So utility companies should not charge standing charges as their metering etc is for the benefit of the supplier. So you shouldn’t pay admin charges on a new mortgage etc the list goes on..   What a nuisance the world is not a fair place!

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      3. BillyTheFish

        Yeah, the Tenant doesn’t benefit from the Tenancy Agreement either so no charge there.
        They don’t beenfit from the inventory/check out either, so no charge there.
        Let the Landlord pay all admin fees, along with an etra 3% SDLT, 67% tax increase by 2020, loss of wear and tear, LHA selective licensing schemes popping up everywhere.
        Two options:
        1. You know what? Sod this market, I’m selling (reduced stock = rent increases)
        2. You know what? I can’t cover these outgoings, the only option is rent increases

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  5. Eric Walker

    I have to say that I have no issue with raising consumer awareness through a comparison chart. As for being a waste of council money, I note that the data was provided by Generation Rent so fail to understand the objections.

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    1. Will

      So who puts the information on the council web site, who answers queries on such information.  It is not part of a council’s function and if council have money to waste they should not be constantly bleating they need more funding.  I have no problem with the information being out there but it is not a function of any local authority.

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      1. observer

        They spent as much time posting that information (which is useful to their constituents) as you have spent posting your negative comments on this website.
        Given that the UK government has to pay these fees from time to time it is actually in their interests to know which letting agent is ripping them off the most. The time spent to post an article on a website is at a maximum one hour, that’s probably about £20 worth of time given public levels of pay.
        Therefore, if they save even just £21 on fees in the entirety of the future, posting that will have been a commercially profitable decision.
         

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        1. Gloslet

          Just my twopenneth (which you can have for free by the way) but your comment ‘that’s probably about £ 20 worth of time’ somewhat highlights your naivety as to how local Government works, and how much local Government costs.
          Presumably – hopefully! – someone at the Council has checked these figures before just publishing whatever is provided to them by single issue groups such as Generation Rent ?
          It’s similar naivety to people who maintain that a letting agents only cost of tenant referencing is the cost incurred by them from the credit referencing agency, glossing over the admin time, training, liability insurance, etc, etc.
          Perhaps you might suggest a Freedom of Information Act request to the Council as to how much they calculate it costs them and it might open your eyes a bit more both in terms of their costs, but also in terms of the admin costs of lettings agents?
          That aside, hopefully from the comments on here you and others will see that the vast majority of experienced, regulated and long established local letting agents are not out to ‘rip-off’ tenants and do not charge outlandish fees for their time, experience and knowledge which is of benefit to all parties to the tenancy?
           
          These agents do not hide or resent the transparency on their charges or their service, but we do get peeved by the general comments that all letting agents rip-off tenants. I can just imagine the howls of protest if a letting agent suggested that all tenants were very bad, morally corrupt lunatics, based on the evidence of a small minority.

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          1. observer

            The £20 was meant in jest at how poorly public sector workers are paid rather than an actual estimate. Local government is indeed highly inefficient but equally letting agents aren’t exactly Monzo.
            I understand that not all letting agents set out to rip off tenants. Unfortunately, enough letting agents see tenants as a captive market and ready to be bled dry – which is why government has had to intervene. It’s a shame for the majority and if there were better self-regulation of the industry then maybe it wouldn’t have come to this. I believe tenant fees should be allowed but limited to £150. That is 3 hours work at a good day rate (£400), which is absolutely plenty. Viewings are charged to the landlord remember.
            I also know exactly how much “effort” goes into the letting process by three of the more successful high street branches as a landlord myself who has used their services. Having had this “service experience” I have moved to Openrent which makes my life even easier than before and they charge me less than agents charge tenants for a reference check. I was more than happy to provide feedback, the three agents in question didn’t ask a single question as to how they could improve their service. Any wonder that people like me are heading elsewhere! I am sure there are some great local lettings agents but having had my prior experience i’m not exactly likely to try and find them.
            When it comes to “admin time, training, liability insurance etc, etc” – your customer is the landlord. Charge them. Admin time is just your process ineffeciencies. I’m a private landlord and I use online services for arranging viewings, signing contracts, referencing and sending all legally compliant documents to my tenants. It takes me less than an hour to sort everything from when the reference is approved. Equally people like Raj at Fixflo/Letflo are simplifying huge amounts of your “admin”. There are plenty of others out there who are trying to help agents and being met with “this is how we do things”.

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  6. LettingsInsurer75

    The incredible defensiveness shown by some people on here (‘waste of taxpayer’s money”, “Not the council’s business”) etc. really does go some way to show why agents have such a bad reputation in the market – and why, consequently, things such as this fee ban draw such popularity.

     

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    1. Will

      I am not a letting agent. I am a council tax payer who is fed up with councils wasting MY hard earnt cash going outside their remit.

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  7. fluter

    Excessive fees should be outlawed.However as Smile Please says above, both Landlord and tenant benefit from the service provided by decent agents and therefore a REASONABLE charge to both is justified. The alternative is to use solicitors and be charged far more.

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  8. MrSerious

    I also think that Councils’ remit does not extend into such matters, and it should stop.  Generation Rent may wish to carry out this research, but is such casual and linked publication like this actually legal?  The data gathering, processing, error reporting etc is not explained in detail, and to link it to named firms could be considered a breach of privacy?  And the DPA?

    Looking at the GenRent website it is disappointing.  On the one hand, the principle of support and advice to Renters is good, to balance up knowledge and the negotiating positions of tenants.  However, they lost credibility when I read that they are Campaigning for the following:

    *  Rent Controls
    *  Removing the ‘Shorthold’ part of AST by abolishing Section 21 Notices
    *  Banning ‘Accidental Landlords’

    Naive.

    Giving a lot of thought to the disastrous proposal to ban ALL fees, here’s a ‘radical’ compromise solution:  ban just the charging of Tenancy Agreement part of the fee.  Continue to allow reasonable fees for Referencing, Interview if necessary, Admin (S.48 Notice, Right to Rent, How to Rent etc etc) and Inventory Checks, which are ‘tenant-centric’ and at high risk to abortive costs if tenants fail referencing or pull out.

    AST’s are now ‘templates’ and easily edited, emailed and printed.  The cost to direct Landlords or their agents will be minimal.  But any others, e.g. Pet Addenda, will also, correctly, be recoverable from the tenant.

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    1. observer

      All Letting Agencies are compelled to publish their fees so that tenants can make decisions about which properties to look at with full information on expected costs to them. Aggregating this data into one location is absolutely not a breach of privacy as it is publically available knowledge. This transparency stuff really doesn’t sit well with some of you.

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      1. Gloslet

        I’m not sure there are many that object to the transparency – as you say, it is or should be publicly available in any case. It is interesting to note however, that the examples provided by these particular councils do not breakdown what is covered in the set-up fee, admin fee, checkout fee, etc, etc.
        We know from experience more locally that Leaders for instance, have a whole plethora of fees other than those published for these Councils, which might apply to a tenant dependent on particular circumstances or particular property situations.
        Part of this debate surely is that parties must be able to compare apples with apples – although there are certain factions that will only be happy if all tenants fees are banned rather than a sensible compromise being reached.

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  9. Votta583

    This argument could go on forever but when you get to the nuts and bolts of the fee ban you’ll notice a very negative impact on the lettings industry which causes a ripple effect. Fees shouldn’t be banned as a business needs to have profit in order to survive, fees should be capped, the industry should have compulsory regulation, landlords shouldn’t be taxed so highly, the database for rogue landlords and tenants should be introduced and the government should actually fine and enforce the legislation that’s implemented.

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