Insurance News Archive

Property owners should be aware of "extortionate fees" charged to tenants by agents

Property owners as well as their tenants should be looking to keep track on "extortionate fees" charged by letting agents, after a report from Shelter Scotland revealed the practice. 

An undercover probe from the housing charity found that nine out of ten agents were demanding high fees from tenants for certain services on top of rent payments and deposits. 

The charity claims that thousands of people are being put at risk by such charges because they are not aware that such fees are illegal. Around 90 per cent of those investigated charged high fees for services such as credit checks and paperwork. 

A Scottish government spokesman said: "We are determined to end this practice and have put in place the initial legislation to do so. We are now actively working on defining for legal purposes exactly what an illegal premium is."

Currently over 272,000 households in Scotland are considered to be in the private rented sector.

Posted by Judith Stevenson

29 Nov 2011