Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Harringay estate agents: #lettingfees transparency
Inspired by this @guardian article about tenancy fees and transparency I thought I'd dig in to our local estate agents' websites to see how openly they were advertising their fees. In no particular order (and apologies to anyone I missed):
Anthony Pepe
Castles
Winkworth
Hane
Wilkinson Byrne
Paul Simon (yeah, I couldn't find where they detailed their fees so I presume that they don't charge them).
Do click through to the original listings.
Four years ago it was about £120 every twelve months so the inflation on letting fees, which everyone who doesn't own or rent from the council pays, has been 40%. Every. Year.
This affects the majority of our neighbours and will affect our children. It's almost spivery that they've become addicted to and it's only getting worse. These are eye watering amounts for preparing some paperwork and making some phone calls. It's almost as if they employ solicitors to do it.
Tags for Forum Posts: estate agents, letting fees
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Antoinette on
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You probably actually have some properties to rent too...unlike the Council. I'm glad to hear there remain some businesses who behave properly. Like John D, it would certainly make me want to put my business your way should I ever need to....you haven't got any properties in the catchment area of Gladesmore School by any chance?@!!
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Permalink Reply by Rob B on
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An interesting topic. I'm in a related field (I'm a property litigator) and I recently at a networking event met an lettings agent (in London, but not based in Haringey) who was definitely on the "wideboy" side. He told me how he had huge respect for Foxtons. I indicated surprise, and he then went on to say they were the ones who instigated charging fees to tenants as well as to their clients (i.e. the landlords) and had changed the way lettings agents earned profits from their business. I know it's only one person's opinion, but I was pretty shocked and the blatant profiteering!
In answer to why would you ever use a lettings agent, if you have a good one, the reasons are multiple. As part of my job I have to advise on getting possession of residential properties often. The law changes frquently, and it's hard for amateur landlords to keep on top of. Did you know if you make a small mistake on registering the deposit you can't get possession from your AST tenant? The same is true if you fail to serve a government booklet called "how to rent" on them at the start of the tenancy (for ASTs entered into after 1 October 2015)?
By the time you are coming to see me to sort out these little innocent mistakes you might have made at the beginning of the tenancy it's going to cost you at least £2,000+VAT to get them out. Maybe more if I have to go to a court hearing as well. A good lettings agent will have avoided these little traps... and if they didn't, you can look to them to pay the solicitors fees to sort out the problem!
I am of course aware that there are lots of shady lettings agents and estate agents all over that should be avoided wherever possible, but the good ones are worth having on your side - for both landlords and tenants.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Thanks for the info. Sounds like we need a rating service/portal on letting agents!
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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That's not a bad idea. I'm sure both landlords and tenants would find that very valuable.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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I can see no reasonable justification for letting fees being different, it's all the same job and they have the same costs. So why are Castles able to do it for £80 and the others are charging hundreds?
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John, that's a daft observation. Is there one single industry where there isn't price differentiation?
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Milk. Petrol. Oh wait, they're tiny percentages different. Not 400% different.
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Commodities and services are rather different, as you know. Staying with property related services, what about solicitors and surveyors or builders and roofers?
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People need to shop around which is what posts like John's help them to do, information is power in this internet age. When there is transparency price discrepencies start to merge ( in services as well) and those that don't change chose down. It normally takes a disrupter to force that transparency ... such as uber.
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You just can't "shop around" with flats. By the time you've found somewhere and beat off the competitors with your bid and references you're hardly likely to walk away from the fees as they creep up £80 at a time and some are loaded on to the exit of your contract. This is how they increase your rent 3% every year too. You're not going to go through this sh1t again are you AND move?
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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If landlords see a greater flow of people going to agents with lower prices wouldnt they move their lettings to them, forcing the higher priced ones to bring their prices down to attract more business?
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Well you''d think so, but what's the reality with other service businesses? Plenty of expensive solicitors, builders and god know what else survive and thrive. Is there a reason to think that lettings agencies would buck the trend?
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