Foxtons loses case regarding landlord fees
Estate agent Foxtons has lost a case brought by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) regarding landlord fees and the fact that the company charged landlords commission each time tenant contracts were renewed. As a consequence the company may well be forced to pay back millions of pounds in fees charged over the years although no specific estimate has been issued regarding potential compensation.
This will certainly be a wake-up call to many letting agencies with fees of around 11% commonplace within the industry in relation to contract renewal charges. With regard to the specific case against Foxtons, it was also revealed that the company expected landlords to pay the company commission if their property was eventually sold to the underlying tenant. There is no doubt that the details of this case against Foxtons will have far-reaching consequences within the industry and have shocked many who were unaware of what goes on under the surface.
It will be interesting to see whether a new code of practice is released, regarding letting agencies and landlord fees, or whether the industry itself might be left to introduce yet another form of self-regulation. Many believe that self-regulation was behind the recent collapse in the UK financial sector with financial companies given too much scope to influence market regulations.
Share this..
Related stories
Average UK house price back above £200,000
Information released by the Communities and Local Government (CLG) shows that the average UK house price has now risen back above £200,000. While figures from November show that the rate of increase in the value of property in UK is starting to slow, prices in November were still 0.6% higher than the corresponding period in 2008. However, while house prices are starting to stabilise and consolida...
Read MoreScottish house prices 'spike'
House prices in Scotland have soared during the last quarter, new data has shown.The "unusual price spike" was felt across Scotland in the three months to the end of April, with property values in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Dundee all rapidly rising.Lloyds TSB Scotland, which conducted the research, attributes the increases to a seasonal rise in mortgage transactions, a low number of properties on th...
Read MoreCredit crunch 'not affecting self-certs'
It has been claimed that the impact of the global credit crunch on the UK economy has so far had little impact on the self-certification (self-cert) mortgage market.Broker Alexander Hall has stated that the tightening of the lending criteria that has occurred in banks across the UK as a result of the turmoil in the global financial markets, those people who would have been eligible for a self-cert...
Read MoreIt is the increase in UK property prices happening across the board?
While a number of recent surveys have suggested that UK property prices continue to increase it is becoming more and more apparent that price performances in different areas of the country can differ wildly. As ever, it is the South of the UK which is seeing the largest increase in property prices although there are a number of "hotspots" in the Midlands, the North and Scotland. The truth is th...
Read MoreGulf Investors Advised To Invest In UK Commercial Property
In a move which has surprised some in the property market, the Islamic bank Gulf Finance House (GFH) has advised clients in the Gulf to take a serious look at UK commercial property as they believe that the sector looks good value after recent falls. While the timing of the advice may be a little debateable, the level of Gulf based investment into the UK has been growing for some time.