agency admin fee

[gmboy]

Is it possible to reclaim admin fees from an agency in a similar manner to reclaiming bank charges? I moved out a month ago. I didn't cancel the standing order in time, so made a second payment of a part month's rent. (The first such payment of around £230 was for the days remaining before moving out.) Upon enquiring, the agency said, regardless of whether I received the money back a.s.a.p. or at the same time that I get my deposit back, I would be charged a £25 admin fee - even though I pointed out it takes no more work to write a cheque for one amount or another. I've not yet received either, but wanted to get the information in preparation for raising the issue once the deposit's returned. (Don't want to make waves before that!)

[Esio Trot]

It's not as easy as you think.

As it is a client account, all monies in and out must be auditable. Thus the erroneous receipt has to be booked into the client account. As a non-standard procedure, it is normally manager status that has to do this.

It is standard for a charge to be levied. Unlike a bank that has computer generated charges, a smaller company has to manually intervene on anything but standard rent receipts.

[gmboy]

So do you think it actually costs £25 to carry this out? I suspect there's a profit margin in there somewhere.

[Esio Trot]

Originally Posted by gmboy

So do you think it actually costs £25 to carry this out? I suspect there's a profit margin in there somewhere.

The assistant manager post in our office costs the company £42.60 an hour. On top of this there are bank charges for every transaction in and out. We charge £23.50 inc VAT, which I think is too low based on the time taken and costs.