Monday 25 June 2012

Letting Agents Again. And Sadly - Again.

As I’ve ranted and raged previously here and elsewhere, landlords, at the behest of their representative toadies on earth – letting agents, successfully demand, inter alia: references, guarantors, years of certificated accounts from freelancers, and five years of previous addresses. And what reassurance do tenants successfully request of their all-powerful overlords? None.

This must end. We need to see landlords jumping through as many flaming hoops as those demanded of renters. Evidence of permission to let from mortgage companies, proof of timely mortgage payments being made, registration and training are all increasingly necessary.

The good news is that Wales will introduce landlord licensing (you can hear the squealing from afar) with Scotland set to follow suit. Landlords need to be regulated so that tenants can have some recourse (even against the evil clowns who would undeniably do their best to avoid being licensed.)

Tenants still complain to me about receiving no guarantee of their landlord’s integrity. Meanwhile, renters submit to numerous checks, including those new-fangled ‘affordability’ tests, which make me extremely angry, as computer protocols ignore the fact that most people go without basics to pay up where are rents rocketing (low wages inflame this problem.) Meanwhile letting agents in high demand areas encourage deluded owners to hike prices until they soar ever skywards.

This reprised diatribe was prompted by the emergence of those promising new rental websites, which allow landlords and tenants to do a deal without letting agents souring relations. Letting agents are increasingly irrelevant; indeed, they are endangered. The oncoming mass extinction event of these predators will finish off stupid fees (already illegal in Scotland) and branded smart cars. No more agents speaking in place of landlords who might have been more reasonable in person.

There’s one problem with all these sites: the references and checks are all aimed at mollifying landlords. Less consideration is given to tenants, currently not empowered to demand evidence of their landlord’s credit history, employment status, whether they actually own or are entitled to rent out the property, any history of threatening and/or abusing tenants, and if they have any CCJ’s – even those with no bearing on their ability to pay the mortgage.

Change is coming. Many letting agents will go bust, but since they’ve bought it on themselves, it’s so very hard to care. Agents have no interest in encouraging long-term occupancy, as most charge fees to both landlord and tenant with every new occupation. But soon, soon, across the land, offices will close, with agents brought down by unrestrained greed, arrogance and incompetence. Why else would they charge from a menu: for references, ‘admin’, and hundreds for credit checks costing a fiver (and which are pointless anyway.)

No: the new sites are not yet perfect, currently intended to placate and attract fretful landlords instead of reassuring and protecting vulnerable tenants. Only when landlords face the same background checks and sanctions as tenants will things be equal, and those days are upon us. Remember bookshops? Remember travel agents? Insurance brokers? Letting agents will be the latest high street casualties, their once flash offices boarded-up, deserted and forlorn. Bring it on!

15 comments:

space cadet said...

And I will rejoice so very very hard when their day comes.

Jack said...

Cannot wait until letting agents are gone from the high street, and the only agents left are both licensed and monitored. There are good ones, but I have personally only met one... out of a dozen.

MattW said...

The admin fees should certainly be illegal. The Letting Agent is getting a revenue from their part of the rent from the landlord. I guess this is paying for their silly little signwritten cars and soft furnishings in their offices.

An Employment Agent cannot legally charge a prospective employee to join their books. This should apply to Letting Agents too.

RenterGirl said...

I think they will go. The technology is in place, and the fact there is no need for an office, and landlords can save money will prompt this change. Landlords and tenants agree on very little: but everyone hates letting agents. The charges are ridiculous.

RenterGirl said...

A letting agent will let you get on with your own life without having to worry about the time and hassle of looking after your own tenants, and everything else that comes with letting a property.

That was a deleted comment from and SEO spammer in The Phillipines. No: letting agents don't let you carry on with your life. When repairs are required, the agent hands over to the landlord, and even in evictions/repossessions the owners are ont their own. What exactly do they do?

Tesco Value Chef said...

I find it hard to believe that letting agents have carried on for this long, in the age of the internet. As far as I can tell, all they do is put minimal property details onto Rightmove, sometimes accompanied by a cameraphone picture of the outside of the building. For this they expect north of £300 round here from the tenants, and I'm sure they're soaking landlords too.

We're looking to move at the moment and I seethe with anger at the plasma-screen TVs in the agency windows showing property details, the sharp suits and the 60-plate Alfa Romeo that the agent turns up in to show us around.

It's all completely unnecessary - if I were a landlord I would do it all myself. I'd rather meet the tenants myself to form an impression of what they're like, and the rest is so simple it's simply not worth paying someone else to do it.

space cadet said...

I agree with Tesco Chef. What lettings agents are really offering is that sense of detachment, aren't they; that ability to be the faceless landlord, that the tenants need never see, let alone try to talk to (or reason with). For so many landlords, I think it's this that makes them worth it.

RenterGirl said...

Sense of detachment? But it's not what they get. My current landlady is paying for a letting agent and repair package she can't use, and has ended up organising repairs herself. The mother-loving agents have charged her for 'finding' the tenant. They charge a percentage. And they have (illegally) charged myself. If you need a repair, or legal action is required, agents hand all this over to landlords. Why they haven't be utterly cut out of the picture is a mystery.

space cadet said...

For sure. But their middle-man status also makes it easier for a landlord to do nothing doesn't it. They happily blame each other, passing the buck of responsibility till hell freezes over. Made worse of course, if the landlord lives out of town. Maybe the agents will tell you if this is the case, and maybe not. But one should definitely ask.

Anonymous said...

I have tried to post a reply but lost it at last min.Anyway- the private rented sector run how I run property as a private landlord works well, the agents do deserve a bashing but have everything stiched up it seems to me , please take a look at my website launched 4 weeks ago private landlord directory.com its not a plug for the site but a vision of how we think things should be done, there are very good LL's out there its just breaking the mind set of using an agent tenants and landlords alike.

Anonymous said...

Dear Rentergirl,

I have recently come across your blog and am slightly amused at the bias your writing from. You are a tenant, as am I. However I can see the need for a landlord to feel secure in the knowledge that they are renting their asset to a third party who will be able to commit to the rent.
Your suggestion that landlords should supply financial information is absurd

RenterGirl said...

Hey anon: no it's not absurd. Tenants need to know their landlord is stable, solvent and reliable,

Dazzla said...

Hi Anon.

Why is it absurd?

Tesco Value Chef said...

Anon, it's not absurd at all. I used to live in a property where the landlord could not afford maintenance and repair. Result: a winter with no heating.

If I'd known how skint he was, I'd have never moved in.

RenterGirl said...

TVC - I agree. Landlords who are teetering with bankruptcy tae tenants rent and disappear, leaving tenants broke and homeless. It happens.