Landlords could claim thousands for unfair letting commission
The Foxtons court case has set precedence for landlords across the UK who suffer unfair and costly commission charges from letting agents like Foxtons. The ruling in favour of the UK’s 1.5 million landlords means that they will now be able to start proceedings against unruly letting agents to recover overpaid charges from existing contracts over the past 14 years.
The celebrity face of this unfair charges campaign is Konnie Huq, the Blue Peter presenter who has let property through Foxtons in central London. Huq said that “great day for landlords” as “Foxtons terms and conditions were completely unfair.”
Foxtons charged landlords 11 percent commission when the tenant occupied the property longer than his initial tenancy agreement; a further 2.5 percent if the tenant bought the property in addition to claiming estate agent commission for the sale.
Huq went further to comment that Foxtons could acquire £1,650 in commission fees for a property that cost £15,000 to rent out over the course of a year for doing “absolutely nothing”. John Spence, Thomson Snell and Passmore which represents landlords and agents alike, agreed that landlords had high chances of being able to claim back overpaid charges.
Insure My Let Property, who reports this new bulletin, provides let property insurance for landlords and ladies across the country, offering specialist insurance for short term unoccupied buildings and buildings available to let.
July 17th 2009
- Buy-to-let landlords benefit from growing sales sector
- Buy-to-let property on the rise
- Rents stabilise while buy-to-let prices rise
- Rent falls as supply rises
- Buy-to-let sector reliant on future outlook
- Licence taken from landlord due to unfit property
- Buy-to-let investors are mainly British
- Landlords must have sufficient Let Property Insurance
- Funding that is designed to reduce the risks of buy to let
- Rent prices continue to fall