Tag: letting fees

The letting fees ban is finally happening
The letting fees ban is finally happening
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Mark 1 June 2019 in your calendars, folks.

Almost three years after the ban on letting fees was first announced, in Autumn 2016, the government has finally approved the Tenant Fees bill – which would ban letting agents and landlords charging ridiculous letting fees.

On Wednesday 23 January 2019, parliament approved the bill, which bans all upfront fees to tenants – things like reference fees, credit checks, administration fees and contract renewal fees.

Government analysis suggests private renters could save … Read more

Letting fees bill - the parliamentary journey so far
Letting fees bill - the parliamentary journey so far
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Despite all the pressures that Brexit is placing on parliamentary time, the Tenant Fees Bill has been making rapid progress through parliament. While this speedy parliamentary journey may be good for moving the bill closer towards implementation, we shouldn’t forget there are still areas of the legislation (as currently drafted) that will leave private renters open to continuing exploitation.

Here’s our update on the parliamentary journey so far, which sets out the areas the government still needs to address … Read more

Letting Agents admit they’ll exploit loophole in draft Tenant Fees Bill
Letting Agents admit they’ll exploit loophole in draft Tenant Fees Bill
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The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has published its report on the draft Tenant Fees Bill, which will ban letting fees to tenants. The Committee has been tasked with scrutinising the bill before it’s formally introduced to Parliament and making recommendations about how to strengthen it.

To help do this, the committee received evidence from a wide range of organisations, including letting agents, landlord bodies and tenant groups. We submitted written evidence and then gave oral evidence at the … Read more

Homelessness hits 300,000: we need your help today
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Sleeping in a car at night is what most of us expect to have to do in order to keep a roof over our heads. Yet this is how John* coped after being thrown out of his flat by his landlord. John approached his local council for help after his landlord changed the locks to his home.

John was working, yet his low earnings wouldn’t allow him to find any affordable housing in the area. This time, the council was … Read more

What's really happened to rents in Scotland?
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Last week, Estate Agent LSL Property Services used the release of their Buy-to-Let index to claim that the ban on letting fees in Scotland has caused a ‘rent hike’. This didn’t sound quite right to us at Shelter, so we decided to go away and take a closer look.

Tell me more.

When we looked more closely at LSL’s index- we found that their own figures did not stack up against this claim of a ‘rent hike’.

LSL have reported… Read more