Buying a house (and renting)

Agency fees... how much of these can usually be negotiated out of or reduced? I've always rented privately, where the only costs have been paying a deposit and paying part of the first month's rent upfront. The extra agency fees seem absolutely mad.

Looking at places to rent now through agencies and it seems like you lose £300 minimum ON TOP of deposit and rent. For example this agency has a £70 per person reference charge, a £250(?!) charge for them preparing the tenancy agreement (surely this is just a standard contract they already have ready to go). It further says there is a "periodic" charge of £120 to keep the rental agreement up to date, which I assume is annual, and that sounds ever more mad.

There is also a £150 per person guarantor check too if needed, which I'm not sure how they determine it as they say you need to earn 2.5 to 3 x rent to avoid a guarantor. Is that judged off monthly take home pay after tax, or is it based off annual wage? There's obviously a huge difference between the two and for a 1000 per month rent I would only just reach that threshold in the latter case (my girlfriend will be earning too but she isn't currently full time employed so I'm covering rent to begin with).

And then there also seems to be a £110 inventory check charge on moving out.

Is this in any way normal?

OrangeRKN wrote:Agency fees... how much of these can usually be negotiated out of or reduced? I've always rented privately, where the only costs have been paying a deposit and paying part of the first month's rent upfront. The extra agency fees seem absolutely mad.

Looking at places to rent now through agencies and it seems like you lose £300 minimum ON TOP of deposit and rent. For example this agency has a £70 per person reference charge, a £250(?!) charge for them preparing the tenancy agreement (surely this is just a standard contract they already have ready to go). It further says there is a "periodic" charge of £120 to keep the rental agreement up to date, which I assume is annual, and that sounds ever more mad.

There is also a £150 per person guarantor check too if needed, which I'm not sure how they determine it as they say you need to earn 2.5 to 3 x rent to avoid a guarantor. Is that judged off monthly take home pay after tax, or is it based off annual wage? There's obviously a huge difference between the two and for a 1000 per month rent I would only just reach that threshold in the latter case (my girlfriend will be earning too but she isn't currently full time employed so I'm covering rent to begin with).

And then there also seems to be a £110 inventory check charge on moving out.

Is this in any way normal?

Rip off. They also charge the landlord fees too, usually about £400 ish. Why would you need to pay for the Tenancy Agreement? That's completely the landlords responsibility. And the periodic charge isn't needed either....the agreement just goes on indefinitely, month to month unless you want to tie yourself down for another 6-12 months.

Is this agency finding high class properties, or just a normal letting agent?

Just a normal letting agent. Glad to know I'm not completely mad :lol:

See if you can get hold of the landlord and speak to him/her directly and go around all these fees.

Am in the process of Redeeming/Staircasing my Help to Buy loan, sent the forms and valuation off yesterday, and have just realised I sent them the wrong form :fp:

I sent them the form for if I were planning to sell my house, instead of the form for keeping my house and just paying off the loan :fp:

Will have to call them first thing Monday morning and see if they can just amend the record, as the forms are identical except for two tick boxes, or if I need to send them the correct form and if I need to send another printed copy of the report or not.

OrangeReindeer wrote:Just a normal letting agent. Glad to know I'm not completely mad

While all the fees are completely ridiculous, and some of the ones you've mentioned seen particularly egregious, it's par for the course for letting agents.

The periodic fee will basically be to re-sign the same agreement for an extended period of time, so I've no idea how agents get away with charging so much. You can not re-sign and go on to a rolling month contract but then they can issue you with a notice to leave and easily find a new tenant who will need to pay all the fees.

The guarantor test should be based on your gross salary not your take-home pay.

References are all going through at the moment, ended up paying £390 in fees but negotiated £20 a month off the rent and got a 24 month contract with a 12 month break clause (which means no renewal fee after the first year). I softened to £390 when I saw another agency that had fees over £800!

OrangeReindeer wrote:References are all going through at the moment, ended up paying £390 in fees but negotiated £20 a month off the rent and got a 24 month contract with a 12 month break clause (which means no renewal fee after the first year). I softened to £390 when I saw another agency that had fees over £800!

That's not too bad then, saving money over the long run, well done. Got to stand up to these banana splits. And as for those charging £800...disgrace

Those administration fees really went to good use... had to tell them to correct the tenancy agreement because they had made a mistake and written 12 months instead of 2 for the notice period :lol:

All good now though, it's a good job I read through it all.

Redeeming my Help to Buy Loan at the moment.

The Help to Buy people have done themselves out of money by insisting on an RICS valuation. Because of that I have to pay back less than they actually loaned me. If they'd accepted an Estate Agent/Bank valuation I would've been paying them about £4,000 more than they loaned me.

But having to go through a Solicitor, bloody hell. Not only is it costing me £800 in fees for the conveyancing (Ontop of the £200 for the survey and £200 admin fee for the Help to Buy people), but I've had to use practically an entire tree's worth of paper printing out forms to post to them. One of them is 8 pages long and you have to print out the entire thing just to sign the very last page.

So 7-8 years after starting this thread (what a lot has happened in that time!), I’m in the process of buying another house. Have I learned nothing :fp:

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **Squinty** » Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:41 am

I'm going to see about remortgaging today. Looking to get something fixed for 3-5 years.

I applied to increase my mortgage by £27,000 last week to pay off my Help to Buy. Reduced my over all term by 3 years as well mind.

Contents insurance question if anyone can answer!

In the event of having to make a claim, how do I prove what was stolen in order to get compensated? I basically don't have receipts for most things, do I need to take pictures including serial numbers etc.?

I don't want to be paying for cover that doesn't cover me.

EDIT: Specifically thinking of my consoles and games here, and I don't know if a "collection" becomes a notable high-value item.

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **Albert** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 11:41 am

You usually have to show proof of purchase. I just sent bank statements for all my stuff that got nicked and that was fine.

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **Albert** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 11:42 am

I also sent screenshots for items i bought off amazon and that was ok as well.

What if I the vast majority of things I own were paid for in cash or were gifts?

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **Albert** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 12:13 pm

Then you should probably start keeping receipts

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **Mini E** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 1:10 pm

Moving to Oxford in a couple of months. I just looked at rent prices. FML.

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **Jenuall** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 1:34 pm

Mini E wrote:Moving to Oxford in a couple of months. I just looked at rent prices. FML.

Where are you moving from out of interest? Oxford does look to be pretty pricey from what I can see!

I've been looking into rental prices today as we may need to rent for a short period before we move house and despite the fact that the cost of buying a house is a lot cheaper where we are moving to, the average rental price seems to be higher!

Buying a house (and renting)

Who is online

Affiliates