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Croydon Agent

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Good customer service and communication is key to keeping landlords happy, in my experience anyway! No surprise fees as they are forewarned bout any maintenance work and provided with quotes before the work commences. Our fees aren't the most expensive in the area and we do tailor make packages for landlords depending on what they need. The benefits of being an independent agent instead of a corporate chain I guess.

From: Croydon Agent 07 June 2022 16:49 PM

We have been doing this for years, don't understand why all agents aren't doing it to be honest.

From: Croydon Agent 21 February 2022 11:02 AM

We have been doing videos for over a year now and it is working out well for us, help whittle down time wasters. Saying that, some of our properties have ongoing decorating/maintenance work, or a tenant still living there, so no video yet. We are not going to say no to a viewing and potentially miss out on a let.

From: Croydon Agent 07 June 2021 15:40 PM

We just use a check list with all the documents the tenant is given on it and ask them to sign it when they sign up. That way there can be no confusion as to what they were given as they signed confirming receipt. Simple

From: Croydon Agent 07 June 2021 10:01 AM

I echo the sentiments above. We send video's to weed out time wasters but we would not let someone move in to a property without them viewing it and us meeting them.

From: Croydon Agent 24 May 2021 14:22 PM

We send video's of properties to potential tenants, if they like it, we arrange a viewing for them Cuts out time wasters and we are still being "Safe" If someone wants to view a property, we are not going to say no!!

From: Croydon Agent 19 May 2021 09:22 AM

They also need to stop claiming rent back from the landlords if a tenant is fraudulently claiming!!

From: Croydon Agent 09 April 2021 09:16 AM

Our office is Closed (small independent) but we are having 1 member of staff in for an hour or so a day to pay rents and check everything is ok, we have emailed all our clients and tenants saying we can pick up emails from home and have a mobile number they can text if any issues or problems.

From: Croydon Agent 24 March 2020 12:57 PM

I should say, in our experience, the only people suffering are here illegally. The majority of tenants we let to are families/younger people that have the required documents, we haven't let to anyone over the age of 60-70 in a long while.

From: Croydon Agent 04 March 2019 10:26 AM

We do not and can not discriminate against foreign nationals (They make up most of our business). Every foreign national we have rented to since Right to rent began has been more than happy to supply their ID card/Passport/Immigration document to comply with the legislation. The most trouble we have is from tenant born in Britain that do not have a passport or Driving licence!! Even when a tenants residency permit expires, we get their reference number for the renewal application and get the certificate from the landlord checking service. It is so simple and easy and part and parcel of what we do now. The only people suffering from this scheme are here illegally anyway (That we have found).

From: Croydon Agent 01 March 2019 13:50 PM

We aren't putting fees to tenants up, we are putting our fees to landlords up (from June) to cover losses. Landlords will be putting their rents up to cover the extra expense, meaning that tenants will be losing out. Landlord will looking to recoup the extra costs in the 1st year but I don't know any landlord that reduces rent so tenants will be paying our fees again each year they are there rather than just once up front. Why do I think I sound like a broken record saying that I wonder!! I think i may have heard 1 or 2 other people mention similar

From: Croydon Agent 14 February 2019 15:33 PM

You presume correctly, plus they ring us as agents who serve the notice demanding to know why the tenant is being evicted.

From: Croydon Agent 10 October 2018 12:58 PM

Why am I not surprised. First we have licencing to deal with "Anti-Social Behaviour" and now they want landlords to not be able to evict anti-social tenants!! You cant make it up. Yes, I am fully aware that only a a small number of evictions are down to this.

From: Croydon Agent 10 October 2018 09:28 AM

As quoted above, it is not just the cost of buying replacement items (Or getting them free from the council) its also fitting them in the property, whether it be smoke alarms/ovens/washing machines or even bulbs. Granted, some landlords can do it themselves, but if they are not local and rely on a management agent, their insurance wont cover them to do it so have to hire a tradesperson to do it, which costs money. Landlords and agents already have to provide invoices to the DPS/TDS for all costs incurred already when a dispute over the deposit arises so thats nothing new.

From: Croydon Agent 06 September 2018 09:14 AM

We used to let 80% of our property to applicants on benefits about 7-8 years ago, because the rent paid was level with market prices and was paid direct to us, plus the tenants were given the deposit and rent in advance by the Council. The only issue we had back then was the rent was paid 4 weekly rather than monthly, but most landlords were ok with this. This changed when, like Sarah above, we had a letter claiming back over payment for rent as the tenant was working but hadn't told us or the council, and of course it was ours/ the landlords fault. We passed this on to the landlord as we had paid it to him, he said he cant afford to pay it back and as the council had paid us direct, we had to pay back over £5000!!! Now with Universal credit, all benefits get paid direct to the tenant, and unfortunately, no landlord is willing to touch them because of the horror stories of tenants not paying the rent and the landlord having to wait until bailiffs turn up to kick them out. I know that is only less than 1% of tenants, but it is enough to put landlords off that rely on the rent money coming in regularly. The simplest and easiest way to encourage landlords to accept social tenants is for councils to pay the rent monthly, not 4 weekly, pay it direct to landlords and pay 6 weeks security deposit or even a bond confirming they will cover any losses the landlords occur, and crucially not claw money back from the landlords if the tenants is fraudulently claiming benefits . I believe landlords may even consider longer tenancies and slightly below market rent as, unlike employed tenants, there is no chance the council will lose their income and the landlord is guaranteed their rent.

From: Croydon Agent 22 August 2018 10:37 AM

One thing i was taught when I started many moons ago was always be nice, honest and offer good customer service, that's why we get our landlords and tenants coming back to us when they need to let their property or find somewhere else.

From: Croydon Agent 05 April 2018 11:34 AM

You can already check the EPC on any property at epcregister.com You just need the property postcode.

From: Croydon Agent 28 February 2018 09:31 AM

The only way I can see this possibly working is tenants referencing themselves through reputable referencing companies - Rent4sure, letsXL, Homelet etc and then providing these to Lettings Agents/Landlords to prove they are acceptable tenants. The agents will still need to confirm the reports are genuine though but as long as the referencing companies agree to confirm this for each tenant, then it should work, in theory.

From: Croydon Agent 01 November 2017 11:05 AM

We do not actually charge tenants for lodging the deposit. If we do it on behalf of the landlord, we charge them.

From: Croydon Agent 05 September 2017 09:08 AM

The way I read it, the £2500 was for the fees, deposit and 2 months rent. If the deposit was a months rent, she paid £2277 for deposit and rent and £223 in fees.

From: Croydon Agent 10 August 2017 09:23 AM

He continued: “A ban will mean that tenants are better able to search around for properties that suit their budget with no hidden costs." There should be no hidden costs as all agents must advertise their fees by law. Any that do not should face fines. Simple really. 99.9% of tenant we get registering know and understand there are agents fees to pay and most factor that into there budget. As most agents have said before and will no doubt continue to say, a cap on fees charged is a fairer way to go rather than an outright ban which, ultimately, will result in increased rents.

From: Croydon Agent 12 July 2017 08:59 AM

As has been mentioned numerous times on here before, fees should be capped, not banned. We take a small fee up front to cover costs of referencing, if tenants fail or withdraw themselves, it is not refundable. If a landlord withdraws the property, through no fault of the tenants, we refund the fee or use the referencing on a different property. When the tenant has passed referencing, they then pay the security deposit, rent in advance and contract preparation fee (Plus check out fee if applicable).

From: Croydon Agent 06 July 2017 09:21 AM

We have a British tenant moving into a property this week who had his passport stolen and doesn't drive, which means no photo ID. We have had to get letters of attainment from his employer and his accountant confirming he has a right to rent in his own country.

From: Croydon Agent 28 June 2017 16:40 PM

I have lost count of the times tenants have complained of damp when it is evidently condensation! We have stopped arguing with tenants on this now and just instruct a damp survey, once the report is in, we forward it to the tenants as proof.

From: Croydon Agent 09 December 2016 16:25 PM

I am going to start my own protest group too. Just need 400 Donors paying £5 a month and I will never charge another tenant a fee for as long as I keep getting the donations. All joking aside, I agree with Fraser wood. There should be a cap on fees, and in my experience, if a tenant pays their rent on time and looks after the property, 99% of the time landlords are happy for them to stay there indefinitely. The only reason we have had tenants evicted in the last 2 years is down to rent arrears (4-6 months in a couple of cases) so section 8 notice served or the tenants is on benefits, wants to be rehoused by the council but needs the landlord to evict them through section 21. We have had a couple of landlords sell properties, usually only once a tenant has given them notice, only had 1 tenant evicted so a landlord can sell.

From: Croydon Agent 08 December 2016 09:16 AM

Are agents now going to be expected to cover the costs of referencing tenants?! What is to stop a tenant applying for several properties at the same time, knowing they will only take one, or applying for property knowing they have bad credit or their landlord wont give a good reference, meaning they fail but chance their arm anyway?! We charge a reference fee to cover our costs, we only reference one set of applicants on one property at a time. If they fail, they lose their fee, if they withdraw from the property, they lose the fee (This rarely happens though). We have had cases of landlords referencing tenants on their properties through 2 different agents, which I detest, as it is unfair on tenants. If the landlord withdraws a property from us, i.e they let it through another agent or decide to move back in etc, we refund the reference fee to the tenant or use their references on another of our properties. I believe, as has been said before, that maybe references should be transferable between agents, as long as its with a reputable reference company, Rent4sure/LetsXl/landlord hub etc. The only cost to tenants form us on top of referencing is a check out fee(if applicable) and tenancy preparation fee.

From: Croydon Agent 24 November 2016 09:38 AM

Is it just going to be a ban on letting agents charging fees or landlords too? We have several landlords who draw up their own contracts and charge the tenants for these. We don't charge admin fee's to tenants, we just charge for referencing and drawing up the tenancy agreement. We don't charge tenants for lodging or releasing security deposits or providing a reference if they move on. This cost for lodging the deposit is paid by the landlord. We charge a check out fee to the tenants if we do a check in (paid by the landlord). I know some agents charge landlords a lower fee to win the instruction to then make up their money from charging tenants more, as discussed before, if they like the property, they cant shop around for the best price, as properties usually only on with 1 agent. I believe the fee's charged to tenants should be regulated, maybe a flat fee for carrying out reference checks for tenants - say £50.00-100.00, tenancy preparation fee £100.00-150.00 per property and check out fee's if applicable and a renewal fee if the agent draws up a new agreement of around £100.00. If there is a total ban on fees, agents will have no choice but to pass the costs on to the landlords, as we are businesses, not charities and need to make money. This will increase rents and make the poorer sections of society worst off.

From: Croydon Agent 23 November 2016 14:17 PM

They didn't ask our agency either!!! We charge a maximum of £310.00 for 1 tenant to move into a property and that includes the check out fee. Not being funny, but most properties are usually put with more than 1 agent for lettings and all agents must display their fee's online so not hard for a tenant to find the right property with the cheapest fee's.

From: Croydon Agent 02 September 2016 09:18 AM

This is the problem, you only ever hear from people when they are dissatisfied and unhappy. The minority all shout the loudest and have to be heard. Happy tenants just get on with their lives.

From: Croydon Agent 02 March 2016 11:05 AM

They pick on the man in the middle because we are an easy target.

From: Croydon Agent 29 February 2016 10:51 AM

We used to deal with DSS tenants on quite a big scale, they made up 80% of our monthly lets. We no longer deal with DSS tenants because none of our landlords are willing to deal with the local authority! Rental payments are reviewed regularly which means tenants have to chase the council for rent payment meaning the rent is paid late! (Think I can add more "RENT" & "PAYMENTS" to that sentence?) We have nothing against tenants claiming housing benefits, we still have over 30 DSS tenants in our properties which we collect rent from the council for and each month, there is someone missing from the rent run! We, as an agent, do not discriminate any tenant, be they employed, self employed or claiming benefits. We just cannot find landlords that will accept payments from the local authority, whether full benefits or top up.

From: Croydon Agent 29 February 2016 09:14 AM

We have been advised to tell landlords to apply for their licences now and take advantage of the discounted rate and if the appeal is successful, the council have agreed to refund any fees paid.

From: Croydon Agent 11 September 2015 09:30 AM

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