Mr

[Ross Britton]

Hi, our tenants have given notice. After five years they are moving on to buy their own property.

We didn’t put the rent up for the whole five years and the letting Agent kept their fee the same for the period at 5% + vat for full service including rent collection . We also had Rental Income protection at 2.69%

The Agent has now told us their fees will be 10% + vat ( originally 13% apparently) and they recommend we reduce the rent ( by nearly 10%) which equates to over £100 a month. 
 

They also want £11 a month inc vat for Landlord Regulation checks.

 

Any comments?

 

 

 

[Carryon Regardless]

5% is v cheap, 10% is still good value. I'm guessing the £11pm is to cover annual costs but you need to understand what is included and what other costs may be applicable as they arise.

For rents to need dropping by 10% sounds excessive as over 5 years most have risen significantly. But as the A sounds reasonable otherwise I would attempt to understand why. London for example seem to be seeing rent reductions at the moment but I have just raised my rents after my annual assessment of comparisons. I'm raising one property by 8.7% and the T's are still happy. So much depends on local situations and we can't fight market forces.

 

[Richlist]

Do you pay extra for: 

* Inventory & schedule of condition.

* Deposit Protection & prescribed information.

* Arranging gas & electrical safety certificates.

* Referencing.

* Arranging a guarantor.

* Arranging rent guarantee insurance.

* Regular inspections.

* Tenant check in/check out.

* Checking the property complies with regulations.

* Issuing all of the docs required (legionella advice, how to rent booklet, template for reporting repairs etc).

* Immigration checks on tenants where appropriate.

[Melboy]

 

 

                           "They also want £11 a month inc. vat for Landlord Regulation checks".

 

Not too sure what is meant by that statement.   £132pa for doing what? Landlord regulation checks are carried out at the beginning of a tenancy and the majority of those checks are a one off check.......aren't they?

It has been discussed before on this forum in the past about keeping rents at the original price at the start of a tenancy and not raising them at all for a lengthy period.  I would say that 5 years is too long imo without some sort of rental increase review.

Having said that perhaps the tenant has contributed to the upkeep of the property in some way.

2 years for me and a rental review and if required a small or modest increase to cover general inflation particularly Landlords Insurance etc.

[Grampa]

Even with the bigger agencies fees are negotiable but first you need to establish what all the fees are because as RL mentions above you could be charged extra for all number of hidden add-ons. 

10%+vat is still a good rate to pay especially now agents cannot charge tenants any fees and the extra laws and regulations that have been brought in means you need a good agent and you cant cut corners on service and legislation in this industry because if the agent makes a mistake the landlord will be held legally responsible which most landlords dont realise. 

You can get either a cheap or a good service but rarely both unfortunately you never know how good a agent is until something goes wrong or there are issues to deal with. You could think you have the best agent in the world if by luck they found you a good tenant and no issues arose but they could be useless as soon as extra work is involved.

Do your research when choosing a agent. Google and facebook reviews are a good start.      

[Phkarentel]

There's probability a bit of skimming by the agent when repairs have to be done

[Nev M]

My agent can normally get any work done cheaper than i can so tend to let them do this. I do check market price first though.