Estate agent fees

[RedAlice]

Hello,

I am a second year student and have just had to pay £120 in agency fees for my house in third year, but the house we are renting is owned by the agency. I thus am confused as to what I'm paying for with my £120, they have not found us a house, but just given us one of theirs, there has been no effort on their part, or atleast minimal, considering altogether we are paying £720 of agency fees. I'm a student, I am not loaded with money, and I don't want to think estate agents feel they can take advantage of us as they so often do.

Any advice on if I can challenge the estate agents about this would be great.

Thanks,
RedAlice

[Adam Long]

The bottom line is that they can charge you want they want if other people are prepared to pay it.

However they do incur costs for each tenancy as follows:

1) Protecting your deposit: from £27
2) Inventory: from £75
3) Credit and criminal record check: from £20

In addition they have to spend time checking each tenant's references and other crappy admin type jobs.

So £120 is really not that bad, I am a landlord and recently had to fire a letting agent who was charging my tenants £265 each in admin fees.

Sometimes you just have to swallow it and move on, unfortunately they have to make money as well.

Alternatively you could just try and find a private landlord who does not use an agency as they often absorb all of these costs as they are not paying an agencies fees (approx 10% of all rent each month) but do you want the hassle no that you have moved in already ?

Good Luck