Tenancy Charges - Scotland

[Dipply75]

Hi all

 

Am helping a friend who was heavily pregnant & in private rent until her landlord decided to sell up. She managed to secure another rental with an Agency but she had to pay a £95 'admin' charge.

 

She has since moved but when she left the Agency visited, agreed the condition of the property was fine and that was that....until she received a letter stating they were withholding hundreds of pounds from her deposit for 'cleaning' and 'late payment fees'.

 

(the late payments were when she was in hospital and phoned each time to say the rent would be paid the week after when she was out...which they had no problem with at the time).

 

Suddenly there are 3 or 4 late payment fees of £45 a whip! Their said its in the contract, nothing you can do (where have we heard that before )

 

I then find this, and am sending a letter based on this:

 

Govan Law Centre: £2m fleeced from Scottish tenants in unlawful premiums each year

 

But - As section 115 states s.115 - ‘premium’ includes any fine or other like sum and any pecuniary consideration in addition to rent.

Would this include 'late payment fees' or could we try the UTCCR route (would they apply to a tenancy agreement?)

Any input appreciated!

[Dipply75]

This is the initial letter Ive drawn up....comments more than welcome:

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

Administration Charge Refund

I started tenancy of xxxxxx on xxxxxxxxxxxxx and was required to pay xxxxxxxxxx Agents an ‘administration charge’ of £95 as a condition of granting the tenancy. This was paid to yourselves when signing the tenancy agreement.

 

After taking advice, I now request a full immediate refund of the sum of £95 on the basis that this fee was an unlawful premium in terms of section 82 of the Rent (Scotland) Act 1984 (‘the 1984 Act’).

 

Section 82 provides that the charging of a premium is a statutory offence. Section 88 of the 1984 Act provides that a premium shall be recoverable by the person by whom it was paid, I am therefore entitled to a full refund in law.

Please note - I will not discuss this matter verbally, please ensure all correspondence on this matter is in writing.

 

Should I not receive a satisfactory response within 14 days of receipt of this letter I shall consider commencing court action

[Dipply75]

Found on the OFT website that the UTCCR do apply to tenancy agreements....they have also stated that they would object to terms exactly like this.

 

Lets see if we can get a quick refund....there must be thousands have paid the same ridiculous charges and fees

[mutzi]

Can I ask if you had any luck with this? I just found out about this law after being charged £70 'admin' for references etc for a flat I've yet to move into.

 

No fee, no tenancy, was their attitude when I queried it... so paid and then started looking into it some more. I have to wonder what it is the landlords are paying them for, seems like both sides are being charged for the same activity!

 

I've drafted a letter (to send after I have moved in) with the aim of recovering this money and hopefully making them think twice about mucking me around with the return of the deposit when the time comes. Personally I'm mentioning the rent act first of all as the UTCCR, I think, is less clear cut here.

 

You might want to include a reference to the housing act 1988, the rent act covers only protected tenancies, the housing act extends it to assured ones.

 

Housing (Scotland) Act 1988:

s 27 Prohibition of premiums etc. on assured tenancies.

Sections 82, 83 and 86 to 90 of the Rent (Scotland) Act 1984 (which make it an offence to require premiums and advance payment of rent in respect of protected tenancies and make related provision) shall apply in relation to assured tenancies as they apply in relation to protected tenancies

[Dipply75]

Hi mutzi

 

Thanks for that, thats a great help....section added to letter.

 

My friend went to trading standards at first hoping that would sort it quickly but there response was shockingly bad. Said the admin charge and late fees were in the contract so that was that!

 

Taken the advice of 42man on this site ref complaining to the OFT so she is submitting a complaint to trading standards and asking for the admin charge and late payment terms to be looked at by the OFT under the UTTCCR - but through her MP. It goes right to the top that way apparently.

 

As for the admin fee, she is sending an LBA and is happy pr proceed to court.

 

The other charge the hit her with out the blue at the end (not even in the contract btw) was a 'closing of account' fee of 10% of her deposit. I would reccommend getting in writing any fees your landlord plans on charging so you can do as you are, and arguing them now.

 

Will let you know what response she gets.....good luck with yours!