Unfair Admin charges and renewal fees!

[Haaga]

Thank you for reading this thread! We was just hoping to get some advise, maybe some thoughts on the following.

We lived in rental property for 5 years. The property is managed by the agency on behalf of a landlord. We moved out 3 weeks ago.
Had all the check outs done, property was left in a very good condition, inventory was completed, with no complaints from the land lord was happy with everything.

This morning we received a letter form the letting agent that they are going to deduct 962£ from our deposit (full deposit amount is 1200£) in admin charge fees!

It does state in our contract, that we have to pay "the contributionicon" towards “check out” fees, which is 80 £ + VAT, rip off,but we was aware of it and prepared to pay.

So in this credit note they sent us, agency included 80£ + VAT, two late payments fees 30+30(which we are fine with), and what really shocked us is the renewal fees for the 5 years of tenancy, apparently we had to pay them at the end of each year contract!

We have been receiving renewal contracts every year, it was a standard letter, saying that tenancy agreement due to expire, sign the contract and send it back, not once they attached the invoice or reminder to pay 50£ renewal fees, not once in 5 year time!

So they claim we owe them
80£ + VAT
60£ + VAT
50£ X 5 =250 + VAT
332£ + VAT is for adminicon charge for non payment received for27 month!!!!!
Plus on top of that is a 83£ fee for handling the issue!

It does not say anything in our contract that we had to pay 50£ renewal fees.

When I contacted the agency, they said the sum of 50 was mentioned in guide notes for tenants, which we signed before paying the deposit,
they sent me a copy with the small print actually saying that.

Predominantly,we were relying on the contract plus not once they reminded us to pay 50 quid, it just all added up(!), obviously agency done bad adminicon and trying to dip their hands into our deposit!

We are a good tenants and was late with the rent twice( only few days my mistake), never gave any hassle! And would have paid 50£ every year no probs.

We have no idea if we stand a chance!

[Snorkerz]

There are 2 contracts.

One with the landlord (your tenancy agreement) and one with the agent (guide notes?)

£30 late payment fee! they are laughing, that is a penalty! Anything over around 5% per year is not going to be agreed by a court.

When you signed the guide notes, how long were you given before you had to sign? Plenty of time to read and get advice?

What was the 27 months worth of fees?

[Haaga]

There are 2 contracts.

One with the landlord (your tenancy agreement) and one with the agent (guide notes?)

£30 late payment fee! they are laughing, that is a penalty! Anything over around 5% per year is not going to be agreed by a court.

When you signed the guide notes, how long were you given before you had to sign? Plenty of time to read and get advice?

What was the 27 months worth of fees?

Snorkerz, thank you for you reply
We signed the guide notes now and then after signing all the paper work.
Apparently , they are charging us for not paying tenancy renewal fees for the last 5 years. So after the first year us living there we have received the letter saying please sign the contract renewal and nothing mentioned the fees and it was the same since! So we had an absolute shock! If they would of charged us every year we would pay this rip off 50£.
Indeed 30 quid for late payment, rent is due on 22 I paid on 24 on both occasions!

They said they apply 27 month admin charge for not receiving 30 + 30 late payment fees since 2011! No warning letter no mentioning anything to us again, nothing just that after we moved out!

What do you mean by: " Anything over around 5% per year is not going to be agreed by a court...". Sorry, my head is just spinning from the amount of info I went through this morning!

[Snorkerz]

Your biggest friend is the 'unfair terms in consumer contract regulations'. Schedule 2 lists some examples as to what is not fair.

(e) requiring any consumer who fails to fulfil his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation; - £30 for a 2 day delay when the BoE base rate is 0.5%. And £30 a month thereafter! Ha. May I ask how much your rent was a month? If you still have the document, can you let us know the exact wording of the £30 fee clause?

Is the renewal fee in the 'guide notes'? Was it in tiny print or highlighted at any stage? Did you have a chance to read the notes before you signed?

if it was in the small print Google "OFT V Foxtons". If you didn't have time to read the notes then it is UTCCR again

(i) irrevocably binding the consumer to terms with which he had no real opportunity of becoming acquainted before the conclusion of the contract;

[45002]

For Reference

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...d-renewal-fees!

[Snorkerz]

This is from the 'Office of Fair Trading"
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/rep...rms/oft356.pdf


3.46 We regard a requirement to pay unreasonable interest on arrears of rent, at a rate substantially above the clearing banks' base rates, as an unfair penalty. We regard the imposition of a fixed daily or monthly charge for overdue rent, and regardless of the amount due or the surrounding circumstances, as being penal rather than compensatory in nature, and unfair. Tenants would have to pay more than the cost of making up the deficit caused by their default.

[daveg]

Haaga,

Can you confirm that you initially signed a one year contract and then were given 4 more NEW one year contracts to sign.

Was your deposit ever protected in a deposit protection scheme? Were you sent details of the deposit protection scheme used?

[Haaga]

This is from the 'Office of Fair Trading"
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/rep...rms/oft356.pdf


3.46 We regard a requirement to pay unreasonable interest on arrears of rent, at a rate substantially above the clearing banks' base rates, as an unfair penalty. We regard the imposition of a fixed daily or monthly charge for overdue rent, and regardless of the amount due or the surrounding circumstances, as being penal rather than compensatory in nature, and unfair. Tenants would have to pay more than the cost of making up the deficit caused by their default.

Thank you so much once again. This information is so helpful and spot on! In our guide note for tenants it says that:
From 3 days after your rent is due a 1st rent reminder will be sent and a charge levied of 30£( inc VAT)
-From 7 days after the rent is due 2nd reminder will be sent with a further levy £30
-Administration charges remaining unpaid for more than one month will be subject to an additional charge 5£ plus VAT for each month outstanding.
Apparently we overlooked the late payment charges sometimes in 2010 and 2011, they remained unpaid. So this 5£ + VAT was charged every month on one outstanding penalty for over a period of 3 years another for over 2,5 years. Agency have not send any warning or a reminder of such charges of an unpaid balance, so these charges were accumulating over the years without us being aware of it!!! I pay rent over the phone every month, not once they mentioned that we have unpaid fees! I was just wondering if we would stay there for another 10 years we would probably be owing them thousands

[Haaga]

Haaga,

Can you confirm that you initially signed a one year contract and then were given 4 more NEW one year contracts to sign.

Was your deposit ever protected in a deposit protection scheme? Were you sent details of the deposit protection scheme used?

That's correct. Every year agency would send standard letter saying your contract renewal is due, please sign every page and post asap, no invoice attached, no note please pay 50£+VAT towards it, nothing! We are quite inexperienced in renting, and that's was our first proper contract with anyone. So we have not paid any attention to this renewal fees that should have been applied every time, and certainly it looks like they expected us to remind them each year to charge us for the renewal?!

Yes, deposit is protected.

[jjlandlord]

Unless there is a document that shows that you were told that they would charge you for renewals, IMHO they cannot now ask for money. So I would refuse to pay any renewal fees.