At this time of year we often get people looking for 1 or 2 month tenancies.
Here at Redfern Property, we do have some landlords that we know are happy to have shorter tenancies to fill their rooms, but we’d like to take the opportunity to explain why many letting agents and landlords don’t.
Most letting agents offer landlords an option of 3 services when advertising their property:-
- Advertise only – the letting agent simply sends on all enquiries to the landlord and they deal with viewings, contracts etc. This is usually a set one off fee, whether the landlord find tenants through the agency or not.
- Tenant find – this is where the letting agency finds a tenant on behalf of the landlord, and usually includes viewings, tenancy agreements, reference checks and also sorting the deposit. Once the tenant moves in, all future correspondence is with the landlord. In most cases, the agents only get paid if they DO find a tenant (and landlords can advertise with more than one of course). So for this option, the landlord pays the fee every time a new tenant is found or tenancy begins. The fees range from £100 per tenant up to 6 weeks rent depending on the agency (that’s general, not Aberystwyth, we’ve no idea what everyone is doing here!).
- Management fee – this is where the property is managed wholly by the letting agency, usually for a percentage of the rent on a monthly basis. Of course this means when the property is empty – no pay BUT that encourages you to find tenants quickly. In some cases, letting agents may charge for a new tenancy set up and inventories, while others may not. So again, landlords are likely paying per tenancy.
So from options 2 and 3 above, in the majority of cases, landlords will be paying per tenancy a certain fee. It’s because of this reason that they will always request a minimum 6 month contract, and will always prefer long term letting.