You will not just see "some agents" go out of business, I would imagine maybe 50% of letting agncies will close. Your suggestion of charging more up fromt is just non sensical, as the agent would need to charge 1 and half times the initial fee which would then enforce the landlord to possibly not accept the offer in the first place as they have to spend too much up front. also what if the tenant only stays one year then the landlord would have paid for higher fees for nothing!
There has never been more of a case then now for this industry to be regulated and the government are trying to make the letting process more fairer, the introduction of the tenancy deposit scheme is a good example of this. But by an agent not charging a renewal fee then this will mean them losing maybe 20-30% of their annual and in the middle of a recssion even the biggest of agents will be forced to close. But this will just lead to the industry becoming even more un regulated, with landlords and tenants opening themselves up to being turnt over at every opportunity!
I believe the answer to this problem is for the renewal fee to be reduced to maybe half of the original let only fee instead of the current 7 0r 8% renewal charge. This may be deemed as more fairer but cutting the renewal fee completely will bring in massive implications which will in the end effect the landlords who are just trying to save a couple of quid from it!
Your wrong
You will not just see "some agents" go out of business, I would imagine maybe 50% of letting agncies will close. Your suggestion of charging more up fromt is just non sensical, as the agent would need to charge 1 and half times the initial fee which would then enforce the landlord to possibly not accept the offer in the first place as they have to spend too much up front. also what if the tenant only stays one year then the landlord would have paid for higher fees for nothing!
There has never been more of a case then now for this industry to be regulated and the government are trying to make the letting process more fairer, the introduction of the tenancy deposit scheme is a good example of this. But by an agent not charging a renewal fee then this will mean them losing maybe 20-30% of their annual and in the middle of a recssion even the biggest of agents will be forced to close. But this will just lead to the industry becoming even more un regulated, with landlords and tenants opening themselves up to being turnt over at every opportunity!
I believe the answer to this problem is for the renewal fee to be reduced to maybe half of the original let only fee instead of the current 7 0r 8% renewal charge. This may be deemed as more fairer but cutting the renewal fee completely will bring in massive implications which will in the end effect the landlords who are just trying to save a couple of quid from it!