“Helpful but shocking bill...”
3 Star Review
Nov 20,2018
By:
'ACTTYRR'
Nov 20,2018
Branch: London, 21 Commercial Street
Services: Lettings (as a Landlord)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: E2
Branch: London, 21 Commercial Street
Lettings (as a Landlord)
Postcode: E2
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We received an spontaneous email from the agent to ask about our property on the market. It was marketed through another agency but we did not have any luck with prospective tenants for a month before this one emailed me. I found it very odd and a bit uncomfortable that Morgan Randall contacted me at my personal email address out of blue as I had never given them my email address - to be honest, we did not know them before they contacted me.
Nonetheless, I replied to the email out of urgency and found them OK so agreed to move to joint sole agency with the original agent (Portico) in the area. Morgan Randall brought many prospective tenants which was impressive but some of them were clearly not very suitable (bringing a pair of dogs to no pet allowed premises, for example). They found us new tenants at the end. Job was quick and efficient, for which I rate this agent highly.
Now we received the bill for rent management only service (but you still have to chase up tenants if they do not pay. Rent management means they retain money between when tenants pay the agent and the agent pays landlords), which charges landlord 11%+VAT for the initial term - in our case, that was an 18-month contract, so came out as nearly 2.7 months equivalent of rent we receive, or 8-month equivalent of our BTL mortgage.
What I was annoyed was the fact that they were not clear about other charges such as tenancy agreement fee (GBP350 + VAT), tenants reference fee (GBP65 per tenant), etc. The only fee I ticked on the form was check-in which itself was more than double compared to you finding an independent one. Our previous agent charged much less on tenancy agreement and was clear about it from the beginning. Also, they retain rent for 10 working days after they collect rent from the tenants - what kind of business is there for you to pay them higher than average commission to retain your rent (i.e. they have free working capital available for 1/3 of the month!)...... Us landlords are not protected if, for example, these agents go burst. I think if agents retain clients' money they should be regulated by an authority like FCA, or are they?
Comment on agent fees
Expensive and some hidden fees
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