What do you pay your BTL agent?

[d000hg]

I own 2 BTLs managed by different agencies in different parts of the country. Both provide 'full service' management i.e. they find and vet tenants, handle small repairs, etc - I do virtually nothing.

Both have headline fees of 10% (+VAT) which seems quite standard. Both charge some fixed fee for new tenancy agreements. Maybe about £200, not certain.
On property A, that's it.
On property B, they also charge me monthly for:
"Gross rental information to HMRC" @ £15+VAT pcm
"Landlord regulation checks" @ £10+VAT pcm

Tot it all up and I'm probably getting about 80% of the rent if you reckon on a new tenant about once a year. Seems a lot of fees.

What do you pay your agents and what individual service fees are they charging? Why is my agent charging me to send information to HMRC for instance?
The current FTC is coming to an end and I'm wondering about trying to push back, but no idea how much leverage I've got.

[AtW]

£ 0

[SueEllen]

£ 0

That's cos you aren't a rent seeker.

[ChimpMaster]

I don't use BTL rental agents, they're a waste of time. Worse than IT recruitment agents by a long way.

If you want complete hands off, find a leasing company / housing association. They will take the house off your hands for 3 to 5 years, pay you slightly below market rent, and rarely if ever bother you during that term. They will house vulnerable/needy people (which is good socially) and they will pay you every month without hassle or deductions. And in the end, if you decide to take the property back, they return it in the same state you gave it.

Check your mortgage conditions though.

[d000hg]

I don't use BTL rental agents, they're a waste of time. Worse than IT recruitment agents by a long way.

If you want complete hands off, find a leasing company / housing association. They will take the house off your hands for 3 to 5 years, pay you slightly below market rent, and rarely if ever bother you during that term. They will house vulnerable/needy people (which is good socially) and they will pay you every month without hassle or deductions. And in the end, if you decide to take the property back, they return it in the same state you gave it.

Check your mortgage conditions though.

I don't think it would be a good fit for property B but that's actually quite interesting. Property B is in a nice private building well set for good tenants or holiday-letting.
Property A is a house in a deprived NE village where we've only ever had 'DSS' tenants (with varying levels of success, some have been really good) and in fact our current tenant sounds quite along the lines you describe - she was found the house by her case-worker after fleeing an abusive partner.

To be fair, the agent in question is really good. The property sat empty for a long time due to various problems and they continued to look after it it when it was not possible to advertise for several months, without any complaint. So I deliberately didn't complain when we finally got a decent tenant because I think they earned it, but now we're a couple of years in and I consider that 'debt' repaid.

10%+VAT is fine with me it's all these other things that keep appearing, death by 1000 cuts

[northernladuk]

Mine went up to 12% a year ago. Not overly happy but not heard a peep from them or the tenants for years so worth it IMO.

I say that, I've a suspicion they aren't doing their regular checks properly so waiting until the current tenant leaves. If they haven't done a good job of regular checks and the exit check I'll get them to repair everything that's not on it as they've no evidence and then swap. That's an issue with my particular agent, not around paying for an agent to look after it for me.

[AtW]

Mine went up to 12% a year ago. Not overly happy but not heard a peep from them or the tenants for years so worth it IMO.

Your tenants are probably happy not to hear from you either

[courtg9000]

8-12.5% is the normal range.
The extras's on property B are a bit naughty but of course they "can't" charge tenants anymore so they do try the landlords for extras.

As for letting agents being worse than recruitment agents - YES

[d000hg]

8-12.5% is the normal range.
The extras's on property B are a bit naughty

Any idea what they are? If they just said 12%+VAT I would probably be fine, but it's doing it as all these little extras I dislike.

In my experience, rental agents have actually been quite helpful and provide a useful service of making sure I don't have to talk to my tenant or sort out their problems. In smaller communities they tend to know who all the troublemakers are and so on.
Unlike sales agents who do Jack **** for their money.

[courtg9000]

Any idea what they are? If they just said 12%+VAT I would probably be fine, but it's doing it as all these little extras I dislike.

In my experience, rental agents have actually been quite helpful and provide a useful service of making sure I don't have to talk to my tenant or sort out their problems. In smaller communities they tend to know who all the troublemakers are and so on.
Unlike sales agents who do Jack **** for their money.

I have no idea what they are suggesting with your extra's I suggest you have a strong word. I would certain strongly question and ask if he wants to be finding the next tenant after this one leaves and which one of his competitors he suggests the business goes to.
Remember that after the tenant fees ban letting agents are running low on income and they can only fleece landlords now.