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News Story
Letting agents under attack over 'greed' claims
Friday 27th March 2009Lettings agents have been accused of cheating the private rented sector out of £3bn a year.
The provocative attack has come from Keshav Thukaram, managing director of a new website which describes itself as aiming to help landlords get the maximum return from their property portfolios by offering them an alternative to traditional lettings agents.
Thukaram, whose Smartlandlord business also provides EPCs and insurance products, claimed landlords are being ripped off by agents charging substantial fees for services that can be bought for far less elsewhere.
He said letting agents typically charge 12% of rent “just to market a property to prospective tenants”. He said this meant landlords are typically paying letting agents £1,550 a year for a service that can be bought on the web for £100.
He also claimed agents charge £200 to produce a tenancy agreement contract which can be downloaded free from the internet.
Thukaram said: “Landlords are being taken to the cleaners by greedy lettings agents who are milking them for everything they’re worth.
“In an economic environment like this one, where landlords face stagnant or falling rents, there’s 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.”
Send to a Friend Today's other headlinesView Comments 35 comments
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Posted By Bobulous on Monday 30th March 2009 10:54:25
 Get Profile | Let's not forget that Smartlandlord are known for going round telling children that Santa doesn't exist! Won't somebody, please, think of the children! |
Posted By geoffk on Sunday 29th March 2009 14:29:55
Get Profile | listen to the leeches talking how much they can leech of people...Christ how do you sleep? |
Posted By Ric on Saturday 28th March 2009 21:00:43
Get Profile | I agree with Laura first of all, To be listened to in business and carry any weight surely your first public boast should not include bad mouthing the competition! secondly I have been an EA for 16 years and have a very successful letting department ran by some very hardworking staff, who never stop 'as Mark says, there is no end to lettings. No amount of money would have me turn my hand from sales to lettings, leave it to the ones in the know! The legislation is enough to put anyone off, yes if the going is good I am sure we would all of wished we had paid less in fees, but what when you have the problem tenant, or landlord for that matter! what then? is this where Keshav tells us he has a good Insurance Policy to protect you or perhaps he will say you downloaded the agreement its your problem. Good luck to any new venture but equally respect the ones who actually care and work hard for the clients who return year after year to pay a decent fee to feel protected by people who know what they are talking about. |
Posted By LettingaProperty - Editor on Saturday 28th March 2009 17:28:26
Get Profile | Yes, we are experiencing an economic crises and purse strings are a little tighter than normal however, Private Landlord advertising and Letting Agencies have co-existed for years. I cannot see this ending anytime soon just because there is a “new service” available. |
Posted By DeepLurker on Saturday 28th March 2009 16:54:10
Get Profile | To all the EAs - get a grip on yourselves.
I have yet to see a tenancy agreement that does not contain basic mistakes (bad spelling, unlawful clauses, clauses repeated several times(!) ). When you've mastered your job, then you can start pointing out the straw in the other man's eye. |
Posted By Jim Parker on Friday 27th March 2009 21:13:06
Get Profile | It's pretty clear this guy has no experience in lettings or he would know how much work goes into letting and managing a property correctly. With over 70 pieces of legislation to contend with in the private rented sector you don't have a clue pal.
|
Posted By Barrie George on Friday 27th March 2009 17:27:23
Get Profile | Mr Thukaram has demonstrated by his comments that he obviously does not understand the first thing about lettings. Why is Estate Agents Today publishing such drivel? |
Posted By Laura Heyes on Friday 27th March 2009 14:01:20
Get Profile | Anyone who is trying to sell himself by being critical of others cannot be trusted! Landlords, if you want the job done properly, seek out your local letting agent - you have the choice -PLM |
Posted By Acronym on Friday 27th March 2009 13:47:59
Get Profile | Thukaram
Wasting Agents Time Just made me smile..... |
Posted By Jim on Friday 27th March 2009 13:40:23
Get Profile | While times were good, comapnies employed these clowns who could dynamically strategise blah blah blah. Now unemployable, Mr Thukaram (say it with a Frech accent and you get the point) baaaah, will have no option but to make the above statements. He's got nothing else to do. |
Posted By EW on Friday 27th March 2009 13:40:18
Get Profile | DONT PANIC!
His business is really taking off. Search for agents on Primelocation!! 2 properties now - both in Chester!! Its an insurnace and bolt on packages site where he creams the commissions. If you download a free tenancy agreement - you have no redress if things go wrong. This company is harmless. Not much point in asking for splits either! |
Posted By EW on Friday 27th March 2009 13:32:49
Get Profile | 12% for marketing would be nice! Lets be honest - you can buy an off the shelf agreement cheaply, but it wont help when things go wrong. We provide support and advice WITH NO charge and often save landlords a fortune on Solicitors fees.
How do you rent through these people? They have 3 properties listed on PL! I cant find them on Rightmove. I wonder why they dont mention ARLA, NAEA, NALS, DPS, OEA? Landlords and tenants beware! |
Posted By Censor on Friday 27th March 2009 13:18:09
Get Profile | Taga, Please reframe from using inappropriate language. |
Posted By ANON on Friday 27th March 2009 13:16:29
Get Profile | I agree SOME agents rip off landlords, I know of many main agents that tell landlords work need completing when it does not & are members of many official bodies - being a memeber of a body does NOT protect a private landlord.
We do not personally rip off landlords and are private landlords working as agents for other landlords. Yes a fee might be added for something like an EPC but you forget this is an extra service, the tenants have to be organised for access and the admin and paying the supplier etc all this is forgotten about. We save the landlord their time and as we deal with it day to day are probablt more proficient, that's what you pay for just like any other job or service people provide. The basic managed fee does not cover for extra work. Most agents can negotiate a better fee from a supplier for bulk business, this is standard business practice. If our organisational & negotiation skills allow us to make a small amount & this happens in all businesses that research, buy in and sell on services & need to make a small amont to cover that extra administrative work. I can tell you that these people as providers will be charging you the same or close to many agents when as provider THEIR cost is even less to them as it is us!!! This is just a marketing rouse. |
Posted By JW on Friday 27th March 2009 12:19:04
Get Profile | This Kesh chap is a joke. He obviously has no understanding of the amount of work involved in running an attentive and professional lettings agency. He is obviously a failed letting agent trying to earn a living by promoting his site to do it yourself landlords. |
Posted By Yougetwhatyoupayfor on Friday 27th March 2009 12:18:47
Get Profile | Having started our letting department 20 years ago (during the last property crash) our average management fee is 11.2% plus £200 set up fee. Our market share is increasing even with every other agent in town starting up new letting departments.
Finding a tenant is not that difficult, but finding a good tenant requires a bit more than putting an ad on the internet. Keeping tenants and landlords happy requires a lot of work. No one forces our landlords to instruct us but they are prepared to pay for a good service which protects their property and investment. Mercedes or Lada, Kellogs cornflakes or Aldi own brand, Heinz baked beans or Lidl own brand - Local professional letting agent or remote internet site. Pay your money take your choice. |
Posted By Peter on Friday 27th March 2009 12:13:38
Get Profile | Cheap fee does not create value for money, and to download an AST for nothing is just asking for trouble. Internet forums, no doubt, is where landlords will get professional and correct advice as well!!! |
Posted By Benjamin on Friday 27th March 2009 12:08:16
Get Profile | Firstly lettings agents are not charging the £1550 a year for the eservice which is just £100. We are charging for the professional service which we give to the landlords, we are charging for the time which we are spending for viewings, negotiating, telephone calls petrol and etc. You people are establishing such a website to attract the poor landlords to be able to sell your own products which worth jus £1 and charging the landlords hundreds pounds by selling your products . Do not call the lettings agents GREEDY. We work hard for the service which we provide. We are paying thousands of pounds every year to join the professional body’s .Wwe are paying thousands of pounds to advertise the properties ion the property portals. All of this FREE websites are begging the Lettings agents to advertise their properties for Free, but when their website become known to the tenants and landlords , they start charging the lettings agents hundreds of pounds like Gumtree did. Come on guys this is a time to defend our profession and don’t let any one like these guys call us Greedy and etc. You have lots to learn GROWN UP |
Posted By Jasmine Black Blacks Residential Lettings on Friday 27th March 2009 11:55:24
Get Profile | This guy is an Idiot!
Can he not find a way of marketing his 'Business' without slagging of businesses that have been tried and tested for many many years and proved successful? Lets just say there will be many landlords coming back to us to help clean up the mess after using this DIY rip off service!!! |
Posted By Grumpy from Herts on Friday 27th March 2009 11:54:01
Get Profile | As the owner of a lettings agency, there is lots of competition and I'm not a wealthy man - if I charged any less, I might as well close the business down. If we ripped people off, they wouldn't use us. This sounds like publicity seeking from a desperate failure. |
Posted By Pete on Friday 27th March 2009 11:45:39
Get Profile | This is insane! I own a letting agents and we charge 50% of 1 months rent to find a tgennant and prepare all agreements! 12% ius crazy even for managment! |
Posted By Geoff on Friday 27th March 2009 11:39:27
Get Profile | HILARIOUS! Keshav gets his landlords to take and send their own photos! We've all seen what comic property photos the inexperienced produce. Again he's miss leading landlords, what his service really is nothing more than a do it yourself, pay to advertise! This guy infuriates me. |
Posted By gary on Friday 27th March 2009 11:38:58
Get Profile | I dont know any agent who charges 12% just to market a property.Is Mr Thukaram saying there is a 12% charge even if no tenant is found ? (ie just to market the property)
There is a lot more to renting property than just marketing it.Mr Thukaram seems happy to describe letting agents as greedy and yet his own company website advertises a rent guarantee policy for 6 months at £50 and a 12 months policy at £100 Our landlords pay £31.00 and £62.00 respectively for identical policies. There's an old saying about a pot and a black kettle !! |
Posted By A.J on Friday 27th March 2009 11:35:46
Get Profile | Suprise Suprise old Kesh has no experince in Estate Agency.
Kesh has over 17 years of experience in managing diverse teams and delivering to demanding targets in sales, marketing and e-commerce environments. He was previously Global E-commerce Manager at Shell International and as Marketing Director at Erinaceous Insurance Services. Kesh successfully launched 12 B2B and B2C e-commerce portals for Shell and 27 portals for Erinaceous, including homelet.co.uk, Deacondirect.co.uk and Forlandlords.co.uk. |
Posted By mark on Friday 27th March 2009 11:32:44
Get Profile | this guy is a joke the work involved with renting a property from start to finish is constant. The quility of what you can print off the net is also questionable. ironically its companies like this that help letting agents show how things should really be done. |
Posted By aj on Friday 27th March 2009 11:28:43
Get Profile | Old Kesh needs to stop smoking the wacky backy. In Berkshire it would imposible to charge 12% for a let only service. We would just about get away with 12 % for fully managed.I am disappointed that Estate Agent Today would give this person free advertising for his services which detracts from honest agents. I am contantly being hammered on our fees because so and so is offering the for less. If someone is stupid enough to pay £200 for an AST when if they shopped around it would be obvious they could get this for less !! More fool them. It would be interesting what type of service old Kesh offers. As they say you pay peanuts you get monkeys. |
Posted By Geoff on Friday 27th March 2009 11:27:12
Get Profile | When reading Keshav Thukaram's comments, you have to say "hat off" to his aggressive marketing message, everyone has a right to an irreverent attitude in business, but, Keshav sounds himself like yet another quick buck rip off merchant in the industry using miss information to coerce people into doing business with him. You can't get the "same service else where" as he suggests, professional advice, ethical service, genuine increased value through data bases, advertising, and skilled sales staff can not be dismissed. By leveraging everything that an estate agents has to offer, landlords can benefit from increased rents, fewer void periods, a better maintained property and ultimately an increased value.
If our dear Keshav would like to be true to his message, then I suggest he gets his facts correct and stops miss leading his clients by suggesting agents have no value. Of course there are hundreds of poor agents, over charging and not delivering, but then again there are hundreds of incredibly good agents who provide massive value to landlords. Here today, gone tomorrow Keshav, you have a lot to learn. |
Posted By Tony on Friday 27th March 2009 11:21:23
Get Profile | Well Mr Thukaram, your facts you have here are just a joke! are you just having a thuk-around? I wish you well in trying to offer a good service and making no profit in the process |
Posted By SC on Friday 27th March 2009 11:18:17
Get Profile | Keshav Thukaram get a life mate! You're way off the mark and really need to research your facts a bit more |
Posted By Ray Evans on Friday 27th March 2009 11:16:37
Get Profile | Yet another load of 'old tosh' from someone who plucks 'facts' out of thin air and who only seems to be interested in promoting his own business of flogging insurance etc! |
Posted By Neil on Friday 27th March 2009 11:14:27
Get Profile | I have just been on this guys website. Should be called un-smartlandlord.co.uk
|
Posted By Neil on Friday 27th March 2009 11:05:13
Get Profile | i think the point is being missed here, no one forces a landlord to pay 8% 10% 12% or whatever the % is. If they want to pay it then fine, why are the agents then branded a rip off merchants?! I wish we could get away with charging 12% and i also wish the job was as easy as just putting the property on the 'market'! |
Posted By Julie on Friday 27th March 2009 11:01:20
Get Profile | I'd like to know where Kesh got his info from, I am an agent and have never chargeda landlord 12% or £200 for an AST I do agree that if this is what some agents charge then it is obvious that landlords can get these services cheaper elsewhere.
But please don't tar all agents with the same "rip off brush" some of us really are in this business to provide a good service and good value for money. |
Posted By jharper on Friday 27th March 2009 09:09:48
Get Profile | Competition is always welcomed in the market place. Good for you Kesh! |
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If you have any questions or suggestions about this article or our news section, please don't hesitate to contact us.Editorial Contact Details - Rosalind Renshaw | rosalind.renshaw@estateagenttoday.co.uk | 01252 843 566.
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