Does it contravene the Tenant Fees Act? …..
The short answer is ‘Yes’.
There has been much talk on social media platforms recently about a new approach to managing the property viewings process, particularly for ‘in demand’ properties where there may be many hundreds of enquiries from potential tenants and purchasers all looking for a viewing. The challenge for many agents is how to manage this surge of interest, respond to all enquiries and book the most suitable applicants in for viewings. Many of these applicants do not meet the basic financial criteria, or even when booked in for viewings are not genuine proceedable applicants, are ‘time wasters’ or simply do not show up. This adds a huge burden of time and cost into the process for the agent or landlord.
A new service provider – ViewRabbit – has entered the market with a viewing booking product that charges applicants around £30 to book a viewing. The aim is to connect agents with ‘seriously interested viewers’ only in both the purchase and rental markets. Paid for viewing slots are honoured by the agent, enabling all serious applicants to be considered and get a chance to view the property before it is snapped up. This is not a new concept and many business sectors – particularly in hospitality – have a similar approach to filtering out time wasters and ‘no shows’.
Unfortunately, however, although immediately of benefit in the rental sector, this service is not applicable. This is because of the tenant fee ban which came into force on 1st June 2019 for all new tenancies (and 1st June 2020 for all existing tenancies). The legislation specifically states the very limited range of fees that can be charged to a tenant (or applicant – prior to the signing of a tenancy) and fees covering administration are specifically forbidden.
For more details on permitted tenancy fees it is worth viewing the Shelter website or other sources.
