Call to ban landlord fees

Posted: 10 Jan 2008 09:53:25 GMT

There are calls for tenancy renewal fees to be abolished for landlords who have managed the property themselves throughout the agreement.

There are calls for tenancy renewal fees to be abolished for landlords who have managed the property themselves throughout the agreement.

Landlords can often find themselves having to pay around ten per cent of the annual rent as a renewal fee and this is often a large sum of money.

"It is totally unacceptable where a letting agent is purely renewing the contract for the next 12 months for the same tenants, that the landlord should pay a ten or 11 per cent commission," said NLA vice chairman John Socha.

"All landlords expect to pay a commission at the beginning of a tenancy, but with rents in London and the south-east topping the tables, another fee of this size is simply unfair.

"If it's too high try and negotiate or find another letting agent. There is no good reason for a significant renewal fee that doesn't reflect the work undertaken by the letting agents in London and the surrounding towns and cities," he continued.

The Association of Residential Letting Agents recently revealed that rents are at an all-time high in the UK.

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