Читать книгу Money: A User’s Guide - Laura Whateley - Страница 9

When renting privately you will either do so direct from a landlord or through a letting agency. There are pros and cons of each. Going direct to a landlord helps keep fees down, and you may not have to submit to a credit check. Rents can be cheaper because landlords are not paying someone else to find and check tenants for them. I am also convinced that letting agents play a large part in encouraging landlords to raise rents. Cut out the middleman and you may charm your landlord into wanting to hang on to you without charging more. Reliable tenants are assets.

Sites such as Open Rent, No Agent and Homerenter match up tenants and landlords direct, though you may have to pay some low fees if a landlord wants to see a reference.

Going through a letting agent might help if you need repairs doing, when the agent can negotiate with your landlord on your behalf. You also have more consumer protection by signing up to rent through a letting agency. Agents must be part of a redress scheme, such as the Property Ombudsman (TPO), The Property Redress Scheme, and Ombudsman Services: Property. You can turn to these organizations for help with any disputes you may have with your landlord or agent. Check an agent’s membership before you commit.

The massive downside to letting agents is fees. For years letting agents have been making an absolute packet out of charging rip-off fees for it’s hardly clear what – ‘admin’, ‘renewal’, ‘referencing’. The housing charity Shelter says the average letting-agent fees are £200, but has seen cases where tenants are charged £700 before they have paid any deposit. The good news is that the government is to outlaw fees for granting or renewing a tenancy in England and Wales, so by 2019 they should no longer exist (they are already banned in Scotland). Agents will only be able to charge for the rent, a refundable holding deposit and security deposit, and any ‘default fees’, which are penalties in the event that a tenant breaches a clause in their tenancy agreement.

There is concern, however, that agents might exploit this loophole to charge really unreasonable default fees for silly breaches. Shelter has seen people fined for leaving a jar of peanut butter in the cupboard, or failing to remove dust from skirting boards (£3 per skirting board), or totally over-the-top fees for replacing something missing from the inventory, like £100 for a new loo seat when you can buy one for £12.50 in the shops. If you are in this situation, challenge it.