CAB slams letting agents over unreasonable charges

Permalink: CAB slams letting agents over unreasonable charges
by Gill Montia

The Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB) has issued a new report entitled “Let Down” in which it claims that private tenants in England and Wales are frequently the victims of a system that allows letting agents to operate completely unchecked.

The charity describes some tenants as being ripped-off by agents that impose “unjustified and excessive charges” and provide a poor or non-existent service.

The report asserts that such charges are “usually for carrying out tasks that are no more than the routine business of letting and managing a property”.

With the private rented sector growing and landlords increasingly using agents to find tenants and manage their properties, the CAB urges there is no time to waste.

Evidence for the report came from charity’s caseload of around 6,000 problems with letting agents a year, plus an online survey completed by 1,300 tenants who visited the CAB website between August and November 2008.

The body also studied the terms and conditions of 424 letting agents across England and Wales to find that 94% of firms imposed up to seven additional charges.

These included a non-returnable holding deposit, a deposit administration charge, a reference check charge, an administration fee, a check-in inventory charge, a check-out inventory charge, and a tenancy renewal fee.

CAB chief executive David Harker says: “Government plans to regulate letting agents don’t go far enough. They must include a ban on additional charges, which can be a huge barrier for people on low and even average incomes.”

He adds: “There are so few controls over who can set themselves up as a letting agent and the charges they can make that it is tantamount to a licence to print money.”