Communities and Local Government CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Catherine Walls
Having now reached retirement age, living alone and surviving mainly on a government retirement pension—I find it necessary to live in the private rented housing sector as my situation is not considered critical enough for social housing.
However, I am finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the agent’s fees and charges which seem to be going up and up, and vary from one estate agent to another.
Below, I have copied the exact figures from my latest potential move through the agents known as Fulford’s, who incidentally also expect me to take out contents insurance to a cost of over £20 per month on an UNFURNISHED flat.
Invoiced items |
Net |
VAT |
Gross |
Rent due 21/01/13 |
450.00 |
0.00 |
450.00 |
Security deposit |
550.00 |
0.00 |
550.00 |
Agreement fees due |
125.00 |
25.00 |
150.00 |
Reference fees due |
62.50 |
12.50 |
75.00 |
Inventory check-in |
60.00 |
12.00 |
72.00 |
Administration fee |
41.67 |
8.33 |
50.00 |
Invoice total £ |
1,289.17 |
57.83 |
1,347.00 |
I would therefore like to recommend that the government introduce stricter control on the limits to which estate agents can make charges to potential tenants because sure, a sum of £347 purely in estate agent charges to a tenant (not including what they usually charge a landlord of perhaps one month’s rent) is outrageous and totally unwarranted.
I feel a much fairer system would be that all agents are subject to a maximum charge of £100 per new tenant.
January 2013