Agent Rental Fees: How Much Do Letting Agents Charge?

Letting agents can make life much easier for landlords. They’ll take care of many of the most difficult and time-consuming aspects of letting a property, including vetting tenants, collecting rent, managing the property, and ensuring you meet your legal obligations as a landlord.

But all of this support comes at a cost, of course. So in this post we’ll explore how agent rental fees work, and how much you should expect to pay.

What Are Agent Rental Fees?

Agent rental fees – otherwise known as letting fees – are the payments you make to your letting agent in exchange for the services they provide.

How Much Do Lettings Agents Charge?

How much you pay will depend on the services you require, and on the type of arrangement you make with your letting agents:

• Let-only. This means the letting agent will simply help you let the property. They’ll advertise it for you, and find you some trustworthy tenants, and take care of all the paperwork. For this, they’ll usually charge a one-off fee. Other letting agents may charge you a fixed price per tenant they source.
• Rent collection. Some letting agents offer a rent collection service. As the name suggests, this means they’ll collect the rent on your behalf, and chase up any late payments too. For this service, they’ll charge a percentage of your monthly rental income.
• Fully managed. The full service involves taking care of everything, from rent collection to ongoing maintenance and management of your property. For this, letting agents will also charge a monthly rental income – usually slightly more than rent collection only.

On top of these agent rental fees, you’ll also have to pay an initial setup fee, or administration fees.

Have Letting Agent Fees Been Banned?

Yes, but only for tenants. The Tenant Fees Act came into force in June 2019. It effectively banned most fees for tenants, including charges for references and admin costs.

Even though this law’s been in place for a few years now, it’s still unclear how it will affect landlords. This is because, since this law passed, the UK endured a number of enforced lockdowns. As well as completely disrupting the rental landscape, the lockdowns also brought in some new laws for landlords, including some eviction bans.

In the long-term, the Tenant Fees Act may result in some letting agents passing the costs onto landlords. They may raise their agent rental fees as a result. And in turn, this might force landlords to raise their rent, to cover the increased costs.

But at this stage, it’s simply too early to say. All you need to know is that the Tenant Fees Act means that letting agents cannot charge tenants any unnecessary fees. They’re still free to charge landlords for their services.

We Make Life Easy For Landlords

We offer a comprehensive support package for landlords in Nottingham, where you can choose exactly the services you need – whether that’s simply a bit of help finding tenants, or a lot of help with your ongoing property management.

We make life easy for landlords, and we make a point of ensuring our agent rental fees remain as affordable as possible. Head here for more information on how we can help landlords in Nottingham.