One of my friends has a buy to let and the agents have just introduced a 10 % surcharge on the tradesmans cost for arranging repairs and maintenance. He had the outside redecorated for 1500 and the agents tried to add 150 on top. My friend refused and they did accept it as unreasonable but would of let him pay if he hadn't of argued.
Ken
Quite. Well, they also organise repairs, don't they?
But dammit, they also charge fees to the landlord. They shouldn't be allowed to charge tenants for work the landlord has already paid them for.
You forgot:
Insisting on a CCA for the rent.... ;->
, Alan
Normal rate is about 125 for set-up and referencing (one prospective tennant). Two will be more. Also remember that she'll have to pay something like 4 weeks rent up front and another 4 - 6 weeks as deposit.
Tro
PS. make sure the agent is ARLA accredited (check it, don't take their word for it!) or you're looking at problems later.
Actually ISTM that it's fairly clear what the agent does for the fees that they often charge the tenant.
What's not quite so clear is:
a) why the items aren't covered by the fee that the landlord pays.
b) why some of them are so high. It has already been commented upon that preparing the contract just requires printing out a few sheets of A4 that will have cost them 100 quid as a once off preparation, so 50 quid a time seems excessive. OTOH the inventary that was produced for my flat must have taken a good three hours of preparation, so 50 quid for that seems fair (even if I think the landlord should have paid it)
tim
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