Foxtons face £80m challenge to unfair fees

[Michael Browne]

Foxtons is facing an £80m “class action” lawsuit that if successful could force the giant estate agency to pay back hundreds of pounds in fees and charges to every tenant who has rented a property from them.

 

Michael Green, whose law firm CaseHub is behind the group action, has obtained legal opinions from senior barristers that Foxtons’ fees – such as a £420 adminstration charge, £300 for name changes and £165 for checking out a property – could be illegal under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, and its successor the 2015 Consumer Rights Act.

 

Green estimates that the real cost for administration and references should be around £55, and a renewal fee should be no more than £10.

 

But if the claim is successful, Green says it will not just be tenants of Foxtons that will benefit, but millions more people as all letting agency fees charged to tenants could be challenged. In total, he estimates that tenants in England and Wales pay moe than £300m a year in fees to letting agents and could potentially claw back £2bn paid over the previous six years.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jun/25/foxtons-fees-80m-lawsuit-tenants-legal-fight

[renegadeimp]

Of course its unfair. How do they justify a 420 admin charge, and 300 simply for typing a few letter on the keyboard to input a name change. They cant.

 

Also no wonder they're crying about Brexit too.