Response to Shelter survey - fees 'fair and justified'

23/11/2011

At the invitation of The Scotsman newspaper, David Alexander, proprietor of D J Alexander, issued the following statement in response to a widely-reported claim by Shelter that letting agents were charging tenants excessive ‘up front’ fees.

“I look forward to these issues being clarified next year when the Scottish Government is expected to bring in legislation which will clearly state what are deemed to be reasonable or unreasonable charges in relation to letting residential property.

“This should end uncertainty over the charges mentioned by Shelter, which I am sure will be welcomed throughout the letting sector.

“The law clearly states that a tenant must not be charged for the drawing up of a lease but there are other areas where a charge would seem fair and justified. For example, drawing up a proper inventory of house contents is a lengthy and expensive business and at the end of the day is as much in the interest of the tenant as the landlord. Also, the landlord is effectively giving occupation rights to a property on trust so it seems reasonable that the tenant should meet the cost of confirming that he or she is a creditworthy person.”

THE SCOTSMAN, 23 November 2011