Letting Agents Campaign

Poor services by letting agents cause problems for many Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) clients. We regularly hear of letting agents charging burdensome and varying charges for activities such as credit and reference checks, taking an inventory and renewing a tenancy. Other problems include a lack of money protection if the business fails, and confusion over landlord / agent responsibilities.

With the Government considering the case for reform in the private rented sector, Citizens Advice determined that this would be a good time to highlight problems with letting agents. In the light of the recent changes to the regulation of estate agents’ house selling functions, there was already quite a wide lobby within the industry calling for the regulation of their lettings functions as well. However, Citizens Advice wanted to go further and make the case for curbs on the range of charges which letting agents impose on tenants (in addition to the rent and deposit). To achieve this, Citizens Advice asked bureaux to gather as much evidence as possible about the problems facing clients, with a particular focus on agent charges and fees.

To this end Greg Haye, a second year Marketing Degree Student at Derby University, volunteered to visit a number of locally based Letting Agencies to ask them to complete a questionnaire relating to their rents and charges. He then completed an evaluation form highlighting how forthcoming the agencies were with this information. The questionnaires and evaluation forms were then sent to Citizens Advice for analysis.

Greg then supported the production of a report of the local findings, copies of which were made to both clients and staff. Copies of the report continue to be made available to clients in the reception area of the CALC offices. A copy of the report was also sent to The Rent Service who collect letting information to ensure that the Local Housing Allowance is representative of the local market.

Using this evidence, Citizens Advice produced its report Let down. Key points included:

A survey of 424 letting agents found that 94% imposed additional charges on tenants on top of the tenancy deposit and rent/rent in advance. There was huge variation in the size of these charges. The charge for checking references ranged from £10 to £275 and the charge for renewing a tenancy ranged from £12 to £200. In some cases additional charges for a tenancy amounted to over £600;

Less than a third of agents willingly provided full written details of their charges to CAB workers when asked;

More than a quarter of the agents said they did not let to tenants in receipt of housing benefit – a figure that rose to 48% in the south east of England; and
The report called for urgent action by Government to introduce statutory regulation of letting agents, to protect the interests of both tenants and landlords. This must include measures to prevent agents from imposing charges on tenants in addition to the rent.

Following the reports launch and the Department for Communities and Local Government publication of the Green paper on reform of the private rented sector, Citizens Advice asked bureaux to write to their MPs calling for abolition of additional charges that agents impose on tenants.

In response, letters and a copy of the Let down report were sent to MPs, The Rt. Hon Margaret Beckett, Bob Laxton and Mark Todd. In reply Mark Todd MP advised that he was aware of one recent case which he was pursuing on behalf of a member of his constituency and that he found the report interesting reading and would bear the findings in mind in the future. CALC is currently awaiting replies from The Rt. Hon Margaret Beckett, and Bob Laxton MP.