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Letting agent loyalties thrown into question – Star Letter 06/03/2015

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  • 06/03/2015
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Letting agent loyalties thrown into question – Star Letter 06/03/2015
Each week Mortgage Solutions picks the most opinionated or thoughtful reader contributions from our article comments and letters to the editor.

Each week, we also round-up the best comments, emails and letters to the site and pick one reader contribution as our Star Letter. This week’s award goes to:

Labour housing policy trashed by industry panel – BTL debate

Despite disliking Labour and most of their ill-judged policies, I do agree letting agents should not be charging tenants, but mostly as it is counter to the rules of acting as an agent.

The letting agent is paid and engaged by the landlord. If they take a fee from the tenant then both parties become customers and create a conflict of interest. Who does the letting agent (stting between two paying customer) put first? We all know the answer – the agent puts their own interest first.

Agents should charge the landlord for these “cross sales”, but know they will not wear it, so they bully tenants by telling them to pay or not get their name put forward for the tenancy. Thereon, they insist on renewing ASTs to drive out more fees.

The same is true when selling mortgages and other services to buyers as the estate agent is then in conflict with his vendor.

In regards to the policy for rent control and longer tenancies, one could argue this would reduce the appetite of landlords and so cause house prices to fall. Renters could then afford to become buyers and ergo perhaps this might pass as a socialist policy.

The reality will no doubt follow the last Labour government who refused stern financial regulation as they needed the tax receipt from financial services for their spending spree and then blamed the banks for abusing it.

Arron

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