Here is a question to the blog clinic from Dave who is a tenant
Hi, my letting agent recently charged me £66 for an annual summary report.
I didn’t ask for this and don’t need it as I get a monthly statement from them which I keep.
Is this a legal requirement that I just have to accept?
Answer
Almost certainly no.
Your landlord can only charge you for things you have agreed to. So this would mean either that you had specifically asked for this and an agreed charge was made for providing it, or that this is in your tenancy agreement.
However so far as your tenancy agreement is concerned, there are rules under the unfair terms regulations saying that any clauses (and this particularly applies to clauses relating to financial charges) must be fair.
I assume that this report related to your rent, and I can’t see how it can be fair for a landlord to charge for providing a report relating to rent. I have never heard of this happening.
Indeed in some circumstances your landlord is required to provide this information – for example if you are being sued for rent arrears.
So unless you have specifically requested this information (which you say you haven’t) I would suggest you refuse to pay it on the basis that it is not something that you have agreed to.
After all if landlords could impose charges like this willy nilly, a landlord could theoretically make up a new charge every time they were short of cash!
If your landlord insists that this is something he is entitled to, ask him what his legal authority is for charging it.
If you refuse to pay the charge and the landlord then deducts it from your deposit when you leave, this is something you should challenge and ask to have referred to adjudication.
“After all if landlords could impose charges like this willy nilly, a landlord could theoretically make up a new charge every time they were short of cash!”
Sorry to break it to you Tessa but this is exactly just what so many letting agents (and he did say : letting agent) are doing.
Chances are his landlord doesn’t know anything about it.
If it were me, I wd threaten them with legal action for harassment and attempted extortion (or some such similar legalese).
Personally I think the tenant should get the landlords address from the land registry if not already know and then write to the landlord, enclosing a printout of this page and a copy of the letter from the agent.
Pointing out to the landlord that the agents will make lots of charges for finding a new tenant, and if the agent does not stop behaving that way, it is likely a new tenant will need to be found.
I am not up to date with the new agents’ terms regs but I suspect if the claim was not a clearly advertised term it would be unenforceable in any event