Q: WHY am I being charged so much by my letting agent in fees just to rent a flat and what if anything can I do about this?

A: Scotland made letting agent fees illegal back in 2014 however within England, Wales or Northern Ireland agents can and do still charge fees to tenants when they apply for a property to rent.

However things maybe about to change.

Liberal Democrat Peer Baroness Olly Grender has introduced in the House of Lords a private members bill to propose changes in the Renters' Rights Bill to also include the abolition of agents administration fees.

The bill has had its first reading though like many private members bills do have more hurdles to cross before becoming law.

These include passing through a number of readings and the House of Commons before receiving Royal Assent.

Many private members bills never make it, so it will be interesting to see whether this is successful or not.

There certainly is a case for debate because some agents do charge excessive fees, even locally within Stroud.

You will find that all agents now have to disclose their fees to prospective tenants and that these should list all the fees payable, not just those fees that apply at the application stage.

These fees in their basic form will include some form of credit reference fee to cover the costs of seeking an employer reference, current landlord’s reference and a possible search of the register for county court judgements, bankruptcy orders and/or credit scores.

However you will find that many agents also charge additional fees at the start, that may include extra should you need to provide a guarantor and/or a ‘Check in’ fee to cover the costs of checking you into the property.

Likewise there can be additional fees during and at the end of your tenancy to include for example a ‘Check out’ fee on vacation and/or fees to cover the preparation of a further tenancy extension.

These costs over the term of the tenancy are typically in access £500 for a single applicant and considerably more for a couple or group of sharers.

If there was adequate transparency, tenants perhaps could see whether these fees are justified, however all too frequently this is not the case, indeed some agents even charge a percentage of the monthly rental figure, so the higher the rent the higher the fee.

Given that these fees are both high and unregulated, there will be a tendency for intervention.

The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) do not wish to abolish all fees though accept that many agents are overcharging.

Typically as agents continue to compete with other agents they have needed to reduce the fees payable by Landlords only to add this on elsewhere in the form of higher charges to tenants who have little choice but to pay the fees given the shortage of rental property and ever increasing demand.

Arla have stated that it is important that some fee is payable for the references.

Otherwise you are left with a situation that if tenants have nothing to lose from applying for a property then there is a greater danger that rogue tenants whom you would not wish to rent to have nothing to lose from applying for a tenancy.

Just as they could apply for several properties at the same time and only decide to take one of these on crunch decision day and pulling out of the others without penalty!

With ourselves at Sawyers Estate Agents we have always only charged a fee at the start which is currently £150 (inclusive VAT) for a single applicant or £192 (inclusive VAT) for a couple.

There are no charges for a guarantor, inventory/check in, check out or tenancy extensions.

Though I do accept we are the exception to the norm.

However our model is more along the lines that could be adopted to protect all parties, whilst being fair on the part of potential tenants.

Please continue to send in your letting related questions to steven@sawyersestateagents.co.uk