Landlords Using Letting Agents Will Continue to do so Regardless if the Premiums Rise
It has been announced that the majority of landlonds that use a letting agent will continue to do so regardless of if they see their premiums rise due to the ban on tenant fees.
A recent survey was carried out by UKALA has shown that nearly 8 out of 10 landlords who use a letting agent for their property assume that their agent will increase their premiums in response to the proposal to ban charges to tenants. The proposal was announced as part of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement last year. Despite this sure response, only 9% of those aske have said that they will leave their letting agent is their premiums increase.
UKALA has criticized the Government ban, saying that improving the affordability of the private-rented sector will not be addressed by stopping letting agents charge for legitimate business services. It is suggested that somehow the costs will be passed on in the long term.
As a breakdown of the research, 40% of landlords said that to counteract an increase in premiums by raising their rent prices, 22% said they may have to shop around for a better deal, and 13% of landlords said that they would attempt to negotiate the price of their premiums or even refuse to pay them.
This more recent study does however contradict previous research carried out by UKALA which said that 47% of landlords would stop using letting agents if they saw a fall in their profit due to the changes in landlord taxing, which is set to go ahead from April. The two pieces of research have been undertaken in partnership with the National Landlords Association to try and understand the impact these government policy decisions will have on the professional lettings sector.
It would seem that the future of this sector could be tricky to negotiate, with some landlords suggesting that an increase in premiums or a decrease in their profits could lead them to abandon the lettings agent.
