Bats in the belfry, windows are jammed - London flat renting, deposits & landlords

my rent is £340 a month in Shoreditch. The problem is my income compared to house prices...

3 bed house. 1 person has moved out, another is moving in. (I sorted this). Deposit has to be re sorted with the Deposit Scheme with new persons name on the lease. Landlord is demanding £100 for his 'time' to do it. From what I can gather the scheme costs £23 and he has to change the name on the agreement and Inventory and print it off.. For £100. Is he being a cunt?

Yes, ours used to do it for free.

Hmmm. Annoying.

Did he name the charge before the changing-tenant process started, or after? Is the charge in your lease? If after, and no, tell him to get stuffed. Or charge him £150 for the stress of finding £100 and taking it out the bank. Or write a nice letter to the deposit protection people asking if this is allowable.

No he named the charge after the old tenant had given notice. Plus the tenancy agreement (that he has just googled and printed off, probably) states that any 'setup' costs be covered by the landlord.

We did think about mentioning charging him for our 'time' to read and sign the new contracts.

Wow, much annoyance, so greed.

I do this for free. If he's going to charge anyone, it should be the tenant who left and caused the inconvenience, but I guess that ship had sailed. Is the landlord a real land lord or an agent? If the former he's being a bit of a goon because it's not going to endear you lot to him - good relationships are worth a whole lot more than poxy admin fees.

If he's an agent though it's par for the course.

To be honest I'd still be tempted to hold out. If setup costs are covered by landlord, it's his to pay. Though perhaps do it formally- write a letter, setting out concerns, send it by registered post, then if he tries to take it out the deposit later you have it there, ready to go.

The stupid thing is, he could have just amended the new contract to stipulate there's a £100 admin fee associated with creating it - which is what the agencies do etc. Amateurish.

If you are on first name terms just call him and have a chat - 'disapointed', 'were only just made aware of', 'not stipulated in our agreement', 'we are good tenants and take care of the place' etc.

@Howard he is the landlord, yes. Just a one man band. Exactly, I think its very cheeky. Especially as we have been nothing but perfect tenants. There is no way I'm paying it. Lovely house and a great price but no chance.
@LHL Good idea. Might do that.

I'd try to save the relationship first. If talking direct has no effect then hit the nuclear button.

@Howard we have a meeting tomorrow night. He thinks we are going to simply pay I think. I've got plenty of tact and diplomacy skills. I'll not be aggressive. Yet.

Hope it goes well :)

Cheers!

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Yeah that sounds about right for London; sad truth .. that is the reason I've always rented privately

£300? fucking hell

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Where's @Jeez he can clarify.

I got charged over £450 between 2 of us for our 1 bed, madness

Have I paid less? Yes but it was years ago
Do I charge less (as a landlord)? Yes (i charge nothing, it's part of the fucking job FFS)
Do other people pay less? Probably
Do other people pay more? I hope not but possibly

What exactly are you being charged for? Assume its:

i) fee to draw up a contract
ii) credit check fee
iii) reference check fee
iv) inventory check fee

I struggle to see how this can amount to £300 of fees. I wonder how much they are also charging the landlord for the same service

In London I'd say that was ballpark. My sister moved into Dover last September, she was charged around £150. Haggle! Have you asked around other agencies in the area?

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Haart was £300 per person plus a £99+VAT check in Fee.

Fuckwits.

My tenancy has a few months left and we'll be leaving just to move to another area.

Our landlord is a lawyer, however hasn't protected our deposit in a scheme, (i couldn't find the details for it, she then just confirmed my suspicion in an email kind of accidentally)

Do I:
a) do nothing and hope we just get our deposit back (she's quite nice and understands that place wasn't that nice when we moved in)
b) bring it up with her now
c) do nothing and when she complains about something, try and fight a lawyer?

The letting agency we used went under and she emailed me to tell me that they have now closed and the deposit was transferred to her account