Cost of renting a home too high

In the current financial climate, and with the restrictions that have been placed on mortgage lending over the past year and a half, a rising number of people have been forced into renting a home rather than buying one. However, officials from one charity have said that many lettings agents across England and Wales are charging those that wish to rent a property excessive fees, and that this is driving up the cost of renting a home.

The Citizen’s Advice Bureau has recently released a report, which claims that many tenants are being hit with ‘unjustified and excessive’ charges from lettings agents across England and Wales, and that these charges could be adding as much as £600 to the cost of renting a property. Amongst the fees that these lettings agents are charging are administrative costs, credit reference check fees, and tenancy renewal costs.

Officials from the CAB have said that many of the charges and fees that the lettings agents are adding to the cost of renting a home actually bear no relation to the cost of the service that they are providing. The figures were partly put together from a survey of tenants that had contacted the charity for assistance, and the report was released just one week after the government announced a shake up of the industry stating that it wants a national register of private landlords in England and wants an independent regulator for lettings agents.

The CAB now wants any new regulations put into place by the government to include a ban on these excessive charges so that renting a home is made more affordable for tenants. The report claimed that many of the charges that were being added to rental costs were actually for services that should be a routine part of letting a property and not for services that were over and above the general work involved in letting a home.

The chief executive of the CAB said that these fees and charges were causing huge problems for people that were on low incomes and could not afford to get a mortgage and buy their own home. He accused some letting agents of just making up charges as they went along, adding that this was causing a huge barrier for many people.