Estate Agent Today

The new fees being charged by the Tenancy Deposit Scheme are continuing to be slated by leading agents.

TDS said it had no alternative and insisted its new pricing system is fairer.

But Caroline Kavanagh, group lettings director for the Townends Group, warned yesterday of serious potential consequences for both TDS and ARLA.

She said: “I am at a complete loss as to how any company can possibly justify such an enormous uplift in charges.

“We fully appreciate that any company providing a service has to very closely monitor costs, and where standards have perhaps not met the levels expected, to very quickly make changes.

“However, we have never, in the many years we have been trading, experienced such a substantial and time-restricted hike in pricing.

 “In addition, agents are being penalised for legislation that is in the tenant’s best interest and part of a contract made between the landlord and tenant. 

“Agents could not possibly enforce such increases on their clients because they simply would not tolerate it, so we as the agent have no choice but to carry the cost.

“Agents invest many thousands of pounds to be members of ARLA and the TDS and take our membership status very seriously and do not treat it as a way to ‘use and abuse’ a service, in particular the one provided by the TDS.

“Unless the TDS reviews these costs or explains its sums, I think they may find many members seriously considering their future memberships of the TDS and ARLA.”

Terry Lovett, of Lovett Residential Sales & Lettings in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, said his costs had risen from £670 to £5,604, despite having had no disputes.

He said: “The TDS must have been seriously mismanaged to justify such an unacceptable increase. The TDS management smacks of being out of control.”

TDS, meanwhile, has sent a note to all agents who have complained.

It accepts: “We are very aware that the new charging system has caused apprehension among a proportion of the membership.”

However, it defends its price rises, saying: “Although we have had no alternative but to change the system, it is now fairer than before and still very competitive. Nevertheless, we recognise that the transition may not always be smooth and we are working to find ways of alleviating problems that have arisen. 

“TDS takes these matters very seriously and is working on behalf of its membership. However, we still have to comply with the terms of our contract to provide the service according to current legislation.”