The UK Government’s Tenant Fees Bill will see tenancy fees banned across England if it is signed into law in April next year. Laura Robinson, Relocation Manager at Gerson Relocation identifies the changes and what this means for corporate relocation contracts.
Tenant Fees Bill – what is changing?
New legislation is due to come into force in the UK as of April 2019 with a planned ban on fees charged by realtors and landlords to their tenants. As a relocation business we protect clients against these fees which are variable, sometimes high and often relate to areas such as; referencing, inventories and general administration charges. The new legislation will be a ban on these type of fees, reducing the initial cost of renting a property. Deposits will also be limited to either 5 or 6 weeks rent as a maximum amount – this is currently under discussion.
What are the implications to Global Mobility and relocating employees?
Overall it is good news for Global Mobility and their relocating employees signing lease agreements in the UK.
Corporate Leases
If your company operates a corporate lease policy, whereby the policy is put into your company’s name, then this will reduce the fees to the business.
Private Leases
If your company operates a private lease policy, whereby the policy is put into your assignee’s name, then your assignees should have their fees reduced.
Will there be an impact on rental prices?
In the short term we expect fees to be reduced. However, we expect that these changes will place pressure on estate agents / realtors to increase their fees with landlords instead of the tenant. This possible move may result in landlords passing on these fees in higher rental costs – which could ultimately see tenants as the final victims of the Bill, the opposite of the intended effect. We must emphasise that this is a hypothetical outcome at this stage and something that our relocation managers will be monitoring closely.
What we are doing as your relocation company
Gerson Relocation’s home search team have been reviewing UK lease agreements to monitor the likely effect. We suspect that the new Bill is likely to come into action, so we have updated our lease review process to cover:
Tenant fees: Monitoring leases so that they are compliant and estate agents / realtors are not charging banned fees to the tenant. In the event of identifying an error, addressing this error.
Rental fees: We will monitor rental fees to track the effect on overall rental costs. We will continue to negotiate on our clients’ behalf to endeavour to secure the best rental rates with estate agents and realtors and deliver cost savings.
Want to know more?
Contact Laura Robinson, Relocation Manager
laura.robinson@gersonrelocation.com
+44 (0) 20 3837 5999
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