Tenant fee shock: What does it mean for me?

In a statement aimed at making life better for the ‘Just-About-Managing’, this move is designed to help enable tenants to save, and will bring England, Wales and Northern Ireland in line with Scotland, where tenant fees were banned in 2012. However, nothing will be introduced until a full consultation.

But what does it mean for landlords, and tenants?

Landlord

It’s not good news I’m afraid, letting your property is going to get a little more expensive. The costs that you may once have been able to pass on to your tenant – referencing, Right to Rent, Administration, inventory – you will now be liable for.

Your agent cannot legally pass these onto the tenant, so you must swallow the costs yourself.

It is expected that most landlords will increase their rental rates to counteract these new costs, so don’t be surprised to see a hike in the market.

Here at Urban.co.uk we are on hand to offer advice and assistance, and are busy reworking our packages to make sure that this shocking new regulation doesn’t impact you too much.

We understand that the new rulings are another kick in the teeth for UK landlords, so we’re working as hard as we can to make sure that you’re not too out of pocket!

Tenant

On paper this should be great news, it’ll no longer costs you money to move into a rental property – letting agents are no longer allowed to charge you fees, so all you will need to find is a deposit, and the agreed rent.

However, it’s not all positive news… now landlords are having to swallow the costs of these bills themselves, many will raise the rental rates of their properties to counteract the new pay-out.

As soon as couple of landlords in an area hike the prices, the same will be forced to follow suit and before you know it we’ll be looking at a rental price boom – bad news for tenants who may have been feeling the pinch already.

Whilst this move by the government is a great step on paper, saving tenants a big outlay during an expensive time, it’s possible that they are giving with one hand and taking with another… instead of one significant cost, you may now be faced with higher rent for the duration of your tenancy, as landlords counteract higher fees the only way they can.