The National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) has called on the Tenancy Deposit Scheme to issue urgent and unequivocal clarification on its new pricing structure.
As the row continues, one London agent said his fees had shot up to £16,500. Based on his company’s 15 disputes, he said it worked out at £1,100 per case. Eric Walker, managing director of Bushells, said: “That’s a higher hourly rate than Cherie Blair!”
He added: “Is it possible that these fees have nothing to do with the workload as the hourly rate for dealing with cases wouldn’t be that high, but rather that these figures actually hide the massive hike in TDS insurance premiums to cover clients’ money?”
At NALS, Caroline Pickering, who chairs the organisation, said: “We have been inundated by calls from our licensed firms who are confused and very concerned about the new pricing increase announced by TDS a week ago.
“NALS agents, and other firms in their locality who are TDS members, have conferred on the new rates but have not been able to make sense of the new charging structure. We, too, are concerned on their behalf.
“To help agents understand and, more importantly, budget ahead and allow them to run their businesses cost effectively – we are calling on the TDS to publish a clear formula for the calculation of their fees.
“This includes complete disclosure regarding the differentiation in fees charged to firms who are part of NALS and to those who are members of a trade association.
“Protecting the consumer is of paramount importance and our firms are fully committed to this. But it is absolutely critical that agents are provided with clarification on how their rates are being worked out, as at the moment they feel the system is random at best.”
NALS also said it is looking at options to assist any of its firms considering a transfer to one of the other schemes.
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Comments
Another Observer. That's not the point. DPS is free, but service is poor. The TDS last accounts filed showed a pre-tax profit of over £1.1m. They have a licence from the government which they pay £45k to have. Should we allow the to increase fees by in some cases 1000% unchecked just because you have found somewhere more expensive. There are cheaper loan sharks. With respect, you are a foolish person.
Yawn...yawn...yawn What are you moaning about, its at least half the cost of mydeposits, GET in the REAL world
A petition has just launched on 10 Downing Street website demanding that The Dispute Service Ltd publish a clear and concise calculation of their subscription formula on their website. Unfortunately I can't copy the link here but please go to www dot petitions dot number10 dot gov dot uk forward slash TDSsubscriptions and sign the petition.
Paul - you cant charge a tenant (sadly). Should you, you will be in breach of the Act and may find yourself in hot water with Trading Standards
oh fun times, like anything is going to do anything about this, its the gov getting a back hander again lol, and they are wanting bringing this into law in Scotland hope someone with half a brain going to be drawing the rules up here, Q for Paul are you able to charge a tenant £100? as agents in scotland have received a letter from councils demanding us to not charge anything to a tenant but rent and a deposit as this is illegal and we should only be charging landlords not tenants for anything but rent
These Agents have had it cheap for so long they are moaning now that it's gone up to £12 a deposit, try MYDEPOSITS thats £30 a deposit registered.
Nice to see NALS are on the case. After much deliberation on this matter it seem clear that this is going to get expensive! Not only for us but for tenants as well as landlords. I'm introducing a fee of £100 to both tenant and landlord in order to deal with any dispute. This may rise if the TDS insist on pulling their price increases out of a tombola.
One empire building 'quango' telling another what to do?
What a hope!