Did Foxtons attempt to cost me an unlawful £200 check-out price on my rented flat?
- Rob Crossan, 47, took the agent to task about the mysterious charge
Moving house can be a ruinously expensive business.
My own transition from being a renter, a status I’ve sometimes enjoyed but often endured since I left home for university in 1996, to a London homeowner this year at the grand old age of 47 was no exception.
So, as the costs of a mortgage deposit, movers and stamp duty piled up, I was very much looking forward to handing back the keys to my rented flat in Stockwell, south London to the letting agents Foxtons.
But it didn’t go as smoothly as that. Last week I was sent an automated message by Foxtons, the agent that managed the flat on my landlord’s behalf.
It demanded payment of £200 for what was referred to as ‘check out’ charges.
Rob Crossan was surprised to receive an email asking him to pay a £200 fee when he moved out of his rented flat in South London
The thing is, such charges are unlawful, and have been for the last six years, since the Tenant Fees Act of 2019 was implemented.
It applies to any AST (assured shorthold tenancy – what the vast majority of Britain’s private renters live under) that started after 1 June 2020.
What the act decrees is that almost all admin fees, whether they be for referencing checks, ‘check in’ or ‘check out’ fees or inventory charges are illegal.
I looked deeper into the law before responding to the letting agent giant. In simple terms, unless a fee appears in the list of permitted payments in Schedule 1 of the Act, then it is prohibited.
Charges that are allowed include things like the rent payment itself, a holding deposit or a capped security deposit.
So why did Foxtons send me an automated demand for payment via email and text, appearing to be for a fee that has been illegal for almost six years?
I sent a polite but firm email back to Foxtons, explaining the law and stating I would not be paying this £200 charge.
Within a couple of hours I received another automated email telling me that my charge had been removed.
It didn’t seem as if this was down to a rogue employee of Foxtons making a mistake.
The email was entirely automated, which made me wonder if I’m not the only person who is still being issued with these unlawful demands when moving into, or moving out of a rented flat.
And given that the Tenant Fees Act has been in place for almost six years, it’s hardly as if it can be called a brand new requirement, causing Foxtons to issue my charge by mistake while it updated its system to reflect the new rules.
Dan Wilson Craw, deputy chief executive of Generation Rent, said: ‘It is very concerning that an apparently automated system could have generated a request for an illegal fee for Rob, and we hope Trading Standards will look into this.’
I spoke to a Foxtons spokesperson who referred me to the lettings department.
They sent me a statement by email which read: ‘Following our review, we found that a payment link for the check-out charge – which had been requested by your landlord and which should have been sent to him – was mistakenly sent to you in error.
Mistake? Foxtons suggested ‘human error’ was to blame for the automated demand for money
‘As soon as this was identified, the link was cancelled and reissued correctly to the landlord.’
But the ‘identification’ of the error wasn’t made by Foxtons, it was made by me. I had to tell the letting agent that the fee was illegal before the charge was removed.
The question also remains as to why a charge, apparently intended for my landlord, was addressed to me personally and sent to my mobile phone and email address.
The press officer I spoke to suggested ‘human error’ was to blame for this entirely automated demand for money.
Do you think you have been charged illegal letting agent fees since June 2020? Read on for more information, and how to get your money back.
For me, I’m just grateful that I knew the law. It saved me £200 which, frankly, I’d rather spend on new curtains for my home, than put in the hands of Foxtons.
What if you don’t have an AST contract?
An AST (Assured Shorthold Tenancy) is the default form of residential tenancy in England if all of the following apply:
• The tenant is an individual (not a company)
• The property is the tenant’s only or main home
• Rent is under £100,000 per year
• The landlord does not live in the property
While the Tenant Fees Act only applies to those with ASTs, it is possible that charging this type of fee on other types of contract would also be deemed illegal, if the issue ended up in court.
A tribunal in 2021 found that Foxtons had charged three tenants a prohibited fee of £750 as they moved into a property.
The fee was imposed on three tenants after they signed up for what was described as a short-term rental at a flat on Wandsworth Road in south London.
The tribunal found Foxtons was not legally able to impose the charge, stating that just because a tenancy is listed as a ‘short term let’, the same laws apply as they would on a standard AST.
In essence, calling something a short let does not magically take it outside the law and, in fact, the phrase ‘short let’ is not even a legal category anymore. It’s now a marketing term sometimes used by letting agencies in an effort to get around the Tenant Fees Act.
How do I get my money back?
If Foxtons, or any other letting agency, have charged you a ‘reference check’ fee, a ‘check in’ or ‘check out’ fee or any other admin fee apart from the exceptions described above since 1 June 2020, it could be an unlawful charge.
You should contact your letting agent immediately if you think you have paid, or been issued with, an illegal charge over the last six years.
More information on your rights can be found on the Gov.uk website, and you can also contact Shelter or the Citizens Advice Bureau for further advice.
Alison Farrar, who leads on property and lettings for the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, says tenants should also report any concerns to their local council’s Trading Standards team for advice and investigation.
‘If your landlord has an agent, you can [also] make a complaint to the redress scheme the agent is a member of,’ she adds.
This could be the Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme, and both have lists of estate agents registered with them on their websites.
‘You can also raise a dispute with the company the deposit is lodged with if the landlord attempts to claim a banned fee from the security deposit,’ Farrar adds.
Generation Rent’s Wilson Craw adds that, as a last resort, tenants can also apply to the First-Tier Tribunal to have the payment returned.
‘It is possible to check past decisions the Tribunal has made relating to the Tenant Fees Act to see if your case is likely to succeed,’ he adds.
Farrar adds that tenants and their guarantors should keep an eye out for changes coming in on 1 May this year under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025.
This will stop landlords demanding more than one month rent in advance and stop them initiating bidding wars to secure properties. It will also allow tenants to have pets in rented properties unless there is a good reason to refuse.
Have you been charged an unfair admin charge on a tenancy? Get in touch: [email protected]
