The Association of Residential Letting Agents is reminding the private rented sector in Wales that it is now less than four weeks until tenant fees are banned.
David Cox, ARLA chief executive, said that it is essential that agents get to grips with this legislation, understand the impact it will have on their business, and prepare for 01 September.
To help agents it has organised two roadshows and also has advice on its website on the intricacies of the ban and information on how businesses can thrive in a post tenant fees world.
Meanwhile, a Cardiff letting agent is already up and running and has already stopped charging fees to new and existing tenants.
‘We’ve known about the ban coming in for a long time, so we’ve had plenty of time to prepare and adapt our business model accordingly. A month is neither here nor there, so we’ve decided to take this step,’ said Nikki Lewis, director of operations at CPS Homes.
As well as taking the initiative on agency fees, CPS Homes has also been encouraging its landlords to consider allowing tenants to move into properties with lower deposits than the norm.
‘Landlords typically want the equivalent of a month’s rent as a deposit in order to guard against potential unpaid rent, cleaning or damages. But our experience shows that the average deposit deduction comes nowhere close to that amount,’ Lewis explained.
‘There a lot of available properties in Cardiff at the moment, more than there are tenants looking, so in order to encourage interest in their property rather than anything else on the market, we’ve been suggesting to our landlords that they may wish to consider lowering the required deposit,’ he pointed out.
‘We’ve seen the number of properties let rise by 23% in the six months we’ve been pedalling this initiative, so it’s certainly had the desired effect and we’ve had a lot of happy clients and tenants as a result,’ he added.
