Tenant Fee Ban - #Blog by Lynn Braha of Spencer's Estate Agents #Sheffield S11

Agency fee ban!

Lynn Braha talks about the tenant reference fee ban that has been suggested. Lynn is a Senior Lettings Manager at Spencer, here on Ecclesall Road, Sheffield.

"How are things going to change you ask? I say for the worse. I’m not convinced this is going to help anyone. 

"The ban is meant to help people afford to rent in the private sector, or so they say but this is debatable. In my opinion part of the problem comes from local councils selling off the bulk of their housing stock and leaving them with less social housing stock for people on a low income. 

"The main suggestion to counter the fee ban is higher agency fees being charged to landlords for tenant finding and property management, in effect the landlords will pay the tenants agency fees instead, but this will no doubt encourage landlords to increase rents to cover this and so in the end it will be tenants who ultimately pay, as rents will go up overall and tenants could be having to pay what they cannot realistically afford.

"Landlords may also stop accepting people on housing benefit, as the rates will not cover the increased rents.  This will cause an increase in homelessness and so defeating the objective.

"Another suggestion is tenants will be expected to pay the whole tenancy rent in advance to reduce the risk to landlords again making it more difficult for people on a low income.

"How is this helping people in the long term, yes it will get them into a rented property initially but will they be able to afford to sustain it?

"In my opinion the fee ban is not the answer, a cap on these fees would have been a better solution.

"Maybe if the government had a register where agents can register bad tenants minimising the checks that agents need to do to reference potential tenants.

"Only time will tell if this idea is going to work, watch this space!"

If landlords want to talk to us about their investment property or properties we are happy to help. Call us on 0114 268 3682 or email rent@spencersestateagents.co.uk to arrange to meet up on Ecclesall Road.