One of the leading landlord websites in the UK has put out a warning this week that the onus is on landlord’s to make sure that they read properly through any contracts with real estate agents and know exactly what they are signing up to.
Tom Entwhistle of LandlordZONE was reacting to a recent ruling by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) against Foxtons estate agents. OFT found that the agents renewal commission terms were not fair and transparent. They further added that the ruling should serve as a warning to other agents to get their clauses in order.
Mr Entwhistle welcomes the ruling as a welcome development as “It is patently unfair to hide onerous conditions and charges in the small print of contracts,”. He also cautions landlords that they should make sure that they read that small print in an effort to protect themselves.
Going one step further David Salusbury, chairman of the National Landlords Association, has come out after the ruling and called for the letting agent renewal fees to be scrapped altogether.
That is certainly food for thought I suppose. In the long term if more letting agents are caught in this kind of activity then I would hazard a guess that is exactly what will happen. In the meantime we need to make sure we are looking after ourselves.
