Commons to debate letting fees ban

Commons to debate letting fees ban

9:53 AM, 6th September 2017, About 7 years ago 7

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Kevin Hollinrake, MP for Thirsk and Malton, and co-founder of Hunters Estate Agency has called for a debate on the lettings fees ban in the House of Commons this morning.

The Fees ban was announced in last Autumns Statement and is expected to come into force in the next year, but as yet without a firm date.

This has lead to much commentary indicating this will only result in costs incurred by agents having to be recovered by increasing monthly rental amounts so the tenant will not be any better off.

The proposed bill also includes capping security deposits at one month’s rent and holding deposits at one week’s rent. Again the cap on security deposit amounts may adversely affect tenants finding properties that will allow pets that are more likely to cause damage or tenants with less than perfect payment histories.

During the consultation period for the bill the Housing Minister, via MoneySavingExpert.com, received over 4,700 public responses to a request for views specifically on:

  • Their experiences of letting agent fees
  • Which fees they consider fair or unfair
  • How they feel about the prospect of fees being transferred from tenants to landlords when a ban is introduced
  • If tenants take varying tenant fees into account when looking for a rental property
  • Would the public welcome the licensing of agents and landlords

The response to these views has been collated to be used in the debate which can be viewed on Parliament TV.

David Cox, chief executive of ARLA Propertymark, has said the fees ban will cause “unprecedented damage to the rental sector”and he reported that “independent analysis commissioned by ARLA Propertymark, following the UK government’s announcement of its own ban, revealed that if a full ban was introduced, rents will increase by £103 per year which will only serve to financially punish long term tenants.

“In our submission, ARLA is calling for fees associated with referencing to be left out of any ban. Right to Rent checks will soon be a service that agents in Wales will be required to undertake by law so it is only right that agents should be able to recover the associated costs, given the time and resources needed to carry out such checks.”


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Comments

Tobias Nightingale

12:57 PM, 6th September 2017, About 7 years ago

Believe it or not but Kevin is actually one of the true supporters of landlords in the commons.

Gromit

9:49 AM, 7th September 2017, About 7 years ago

"David Cox, chief executive of ARLA Propertymark, has said the fees ban will cause “unprecedented damage to the rental sector”

Hasn't David Cox heard of Sec.24? Sec.24 will be infinitely more damaging to the PRS than a lettings fee ban.

Sam Addison

10:05 AM, 7th September 2017, About 7 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Barry Fitzpatrick at 07/09/2017 - 09:49
Section 24 affects landlords. Presumably David Cox is a letting agent apparently with blinkers.

Rob Crawford

11:51 AM, 7th September 2017, About 7 years ago

Lets not knock the man for taking on this issue and presenting the problems to the House.

Tobias Nightingale

12:00 PM, 7th September 2017, About 7 years ago

Julian Knight in passing seemed to be speaking against clause 24 if anyone in the property 118 team want to know.

Zaher Waljee

8:54 AM, 9th September 2017, About 7 years ago

Can individual landlord charge small admin fees?

Arnie Newington

11:24 AM, 9th September 2017, About 7 years ago

They banned letting agent fees in Scotland and rents in Edinburgh soared. As all the tenants had extra money and were competing against each other for the same flats then it just pushed up rents.

The correct policy is to cap letting agent fees and to make them transparent.

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