My niece and 4 student friends signed up to take on a house from August 2009. They did not read the small print. It appears that EACH of them has paid £136.48 as an agreement fee to the letting agency! Surely this is a completely unreasonable sum to charge - especially to students? Admittedly they could have read the small print - but students in particular do not understand what is 'normal' practice as this is often their first rental. Is there an ombudsman who could look at this and similar cases? It seems to me that the letting agencies are making excessive charges to a group of people who can ill afford it.