Ban on Lettings Fees to commence June 1st

Does that mean that a tenant will no longer be responsible for the check-out and professional cleaning costs when moving out?

Reply to the comment left by Tony Martin at 23/01/2019 - 15:19
That’s my understanding cleaning charges are to be banned.

Reply to Wanda. You are absolutely correct. This is terrible legislation. The Alliance ,as a new body can only take on so many battles. Shame on the Useless organisations who once again allowed more draconian bullshit to be heaped upon the industry. Yet again it proves how useless membership of these organisations is. We are studying the legislation carefully. We may if appropiate devise a strategy to deal with this. If such a strategy is possible we will promote it on the internal member section of our website. Existing members will already be familiar with our strategy for dealing with Council licensing. We do not make this public. There is more than one way of skinning the proverbial cat.
In the Meantime, to the thousands of readers who have not joined us yet, please do so.
http://Www.landlordsalliance.co.uk

Reply to the comment left by Tony Martin at 23/01/2019 - 15:19
Tenants will still be liable for DEFAULT. However, you will not be able to charge a fixed fee for inventory and check out regardless of default. In other words, if there is no damage or breakages, no charge can be made on check out. Landlords or agents will have to absorb the cost of attending.

Reply to the comment left by Arnie Newington at 23/01/2019 - 23:59
My understanding is that cleaning fees can still be deducted from the deposit at the end of the tenancy if the property is left in a unclean condition when compared to the inventory check as this would be a default from the AST terms.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Cognito at 23/01/2019 - 10:26
Ian Cognito raises an interesting and important point that I don't think anyone has picked up on.
Can a fee be charged if the landlord offers the tenant a no fee alternative?
In Ian's example a fee can be charged for referencing or, as an alternative, the tenant can supply their own references.
My example: Tenant can fix or replace something they broke themselves at their cost or, as an alternative, the landlord can fix or replace and charge the tenant. If tenant doesn't like the landlords quote then they can get their own quote.
Obviously there is an issue of enforcing the quality of tenants own alternatives. But what I would like to establish first is the legal principle here.

HI MARK, hope your well, I have been thinking about this situation for a while now as we draw closer to the 01/06/19. The RLA tell me that under my terms in my AST's we have a clause where the tenants have to agree to pay for a pro clean and a checkout inventory post tenancy, we pay for the check in usually and this is deducted from their security deposit and the rest refunded to them unless there is more damage which is not deemed W & T. However the RLA have told me that I will not be able to do this post 01/06/19 as these are deemed as fees. This has created a dilemma for me and now I have to reconsider what I need to do. Firstly will all my AST's which have been signed before the 01/06/19 and some date back to 2017 become voided due to the new legislation with regard to these two fees and if so, can I apply the same idea you have suggested above to NO DEPOSIT TAKEN, and run them through the insurance company and pass on the risk to the insurer, does the insurance company block protect on an annual policy for all our properties and if they do including Rent Guarantee and insurance and if so how easy is it to make a claim if the tenants leave the property with repairs to be made even slight repairs which fall out of W&T, I usually deduct for any damage from the security deposits, is there a policy excess etc and how would a pro clean fit into the equation to the insurer, as 9 times out of 10 the tenants never leave the property in the cleaning condition it was first presented in ?
What do you think ?

Reply to the comment left by Ross Tulloch at 16/01/2019 - 11:15
Ross I would be surprised if you could continue to charge that as you have given the tenant the opportunity to leave after 6 months with the break clause and if I was one of you tenants I would tell you to poke it as I would have acted with in the terms of the contract.

Reply to the comment left by Tony Martin at 23/01/2019 - 15:19
No you can still make a deduction from the deposit if the property hasn't been cleaned you just wont be able to stipulate they have to get professionally cleaned however you can inply it "This property has been cleaned for this tenancy - professionally" you are not say it must but has been so implying it must.

Tenant Fees Act 2019
2019 c. 4 SCHEDULE 1
SCHEDULE 1 Permitted payments
"A payment of damages for breach of a tenancy agreement or an agreement between a letting agent and a relevant person is a permitted payment."

From the RLA

"Examples of banned fees then would be:

Charging for a guarantor form
Credit checks
Inventories
* Cleaning services
Referencing
* Professional cleaning
* Having the property de-flead as a condition of allowing pets in the property
Admin charges
Requirements to have specific insurance providers
* Gardening services

Q If the items *'d above are stipulated in the tenancy agreeement (or presumably a contemporaneously supplied and cross-referrenced addendum) of tenancy tenant actions "to restore to the condition at entry" are not carried out that constitutes a default and thus become chargeable?