Some Letting Agencies Are Wrongly Charging Tenants Fees

Some letting agents appear to be breaching the Tenant Fees Act introduced in June 2019 by charging fees. A couple were charged a £170 checkout fee when vacating their property, despite having renewed the contract after the ban took place. After they pointed out that this was in breach of the act, the agent tried to charge the money as an ‘invoice’, claimed the law doesn’t apply to renewed contracts, and even tried to illegally take it out of the deposit. The agent in question dropped the demand after being reported to the Trading Standards Agency. The agent then blamed the Association of Residential Letting Agents for giving misadvice. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/some-letting-agencies-are-wrongly-charging-tenants-fees

Leasehold – Parliamentary Written Answer

Sir Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help leaseholders with onerous leases.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: We are working with the Law Commission to make it faster, fairer and cheaper for existing leaseholders to extend their lease or buy the freehold. In addition, we have worked with Trading Standards to ensure there is better information on redress, and they recently published guidance to help leaseholders understand where to go if things go wrong, and how they can access support.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2019-02-26/226011

Westminster Investigating ALMO For Ex-Council Buy-Back Practices

Westminster Council’s trading standards team is investigating its own ALMO for the second time in six months. The authority previously fined City West Homes £15,000 and listed it on the Greater London Authority’s database of rogue landlords and agents after another investigation last year. City West Residential, a letting and estate agent set up by the ALMO in 2009, was found to have breached consumer rights laws by failing to display its new tenancy fees accurately on its website. Westminster City Council would not confirm the nature of the second investigation, but Inside Housing understands it relates to the way City West Homes uses its estate agent to buy back ex-authority homes sold through Right to Buy. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mAauyakvVuMJ:https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/westminster-investigating-almo-for-ex-council-buy-back-practices-55759+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&safe=vss

Letting Agents ‘Routinely’ Flouting Fee Rules

Rules for letting agents are being routinely flouted with newly released research revealing rogue agents enjoy a very low risk of facing any penalties from councils. An investigation examined enforcement work done by the capital’s councils since new rules on displaying letting fees and membership of deposit and redress schemes were introduced in May 2015. The results show that less than one third of complaints made were acted upon. Despite 1,351 complaints made to councils about letting agents, only 444 visits were made by trading standards officers, just 462 warning letters were sent and only 52 final notices were issued. Read more on 24housing.