Landlords and tenants should vote with their feet on letting agents

Letting agents came in for some harsh criticism over the way they dealt with tenants in the ‘Let Down’ report published by the Citizens Advice Bureau recently.

But tenants are not the only victims of excessive letting agents fees and poor service, says Smartlandlord.co.uk MD Keshav Thukaram, said: “Tenants are not the only victims of rogue elements in the unregulated letting and managing agent sector. For years, landlords too have paid through the nose for excessive and often unnecessary fees charged by some for poor and in some case downright negligent service. There are more landlords in the UK than ever before, as people who can't sell their properties try to rent them out.

“Full, mandatory and independently-led regulation of letting and managing agents is long overdue. The Government’s response to the Rugg Review of the Private Rented Sector last week offered hopeful signs that the time is up for cowboy letting and managing agents ripping consumers off.

“In an economic environment like this one - where landlords face stagnant or falling rents, there is a rapidly growing number of landlords who can't afford to sit back and let their investments be managed by other people.

They need to seize control of their property investments if they want to optimise their returns. Encouragingly, thousands have already voted with their feet by using transparent and money-saving alternatives such as Smartlandlord.co.uk.”