Nearly a quarter of all Brits feel that a letting agent has ripped them off.
In a YouGov poll of 5379 adults commissioned by the housing charity Shelter, 23% – equivalent to 11 million people – said they had been charged unfair fees by letting agents in England.
The fee that most people said they’d been unfairly charged for was for ‘administration’ (14% of British people affected) followed by fees charged for credit checks (10%) and fees for renewing a contract (8%).
Some of the cases uncovered by Shelter include:
Renters charged over £150 for repeat credit checks every year. Shelter research suggests that credit checks cost letting agents between £8 and £25 to run.
People charged £100 each time they view a property
Ex-letting agent staff who admit to fabricating fees to increase their profits
Renters charged up to £540 for non-refundable ‘administration’ fees
Letting agents double-charging fees for the same service to landlords and tenants.
The leading reason why those who have been unfairly charged by a letting agent, or know somebody who has, felt the fees were unfair was that they were out of proportion to the cost or amount of work done by the letting agent (52%).
“It’s scandalous that some letting agents are creaming off huge profits from the boom in private renting by charging both tenants and landlords fees that are totally out of proportion to the service they provide,” said Kay Boycott, Shelter’s director of campaigns, policy and communications.
“With our investigation uncovering unexplained charges of over £500, we need to make sure that letting agent fees are reasonable. With costs like these, on top of the sky-high rents that families already face, it’s no surprise that many dread the day they have to look for a new place to rent.”
Shelter is calling on renters and landlords to visit www.shelter.org.uk/lettingagents to share their own experience to join the fight against unfair fees.