Is it not an idea to get landlords paid for their time and administrative effort?
I lose a lot of time (especially being an HMO landlord) with referencing tenants. Both referencing companies and tenants seem to expect all this to be done for free!
It costs landlords time and money, checking when the tenancy started, filling out the forms, and another interruption/job to do on top of all the others.
Tenancy referencing companies do not pay landlords for this … and even act quite heavy-handed at times as if it is a must that this is done – and insist that this must be done immediately.
Is it not an idea to rectify this situation and get landlords paid for their time and administrative effort?
Also, I have clauses in my agreements that state that if a reference is required, a tenant should pay a fee of say £ 25 for that – but I never charge that for fear of it being illegal (although I feel it is not).
J
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Tenants and Pets
Member Since July 2013 - Comments: 1996 - Articles: 21
5:51 PM, 23rd June 2022, About 4 years ago
Hi J
We own and manage HMOs and never charge for giving references. We also don’t expect to pay other landlords and agents for giving references to us. It will be troublesome to demand and pay small sums, not to mention book-keeping – the fee is income or expenditure and needs to be accounted for. Do you really want to raise and demand invoices?
If you are hassled, ignore it. There is not much the agents can do.
Member Since June 2021 - Comments: 51
8:06 AM, 25th June 2022, About 4 years ago
Unfortunately you cannot charge. I have never had an issue giving a reference. I only have 4 HMO’s with a total of 18 rooms so know most of the start dates (months) off the top of my head, and my account program is online, so can always access it from my phone to find out dates. So it only takes a minute. I have also not had someone be heavy handed and on the one occasion I did not know and was driving, I asked them to email me. They did and I responded when I finished driving.
Member Since June 2022 - Comments: 6
3:56 PM, 27th June 2022, About 4 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Darren Peters at 23/06/2022 – 11:15
Completely agree. You should be factoring all your time and costs into the rent.