Consultation Response: Charging of Premiums in the Private Rented Sector

Shelter Scotland welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the Charging of Premiums in the Private Rented Sector and believes it is important to clarify the confusion around this issue.

Shelter Scotland believes that all up front charges for setting up and maintaining a tenancy should remain illegal, and that it is necessary to publicise the clarified definition of a premium in the 2011 Act.

Pre-tenancy charges are unfair and damaging to tenants. In practice it is currently very difficult for tenants to avoid these charges and they may act as a barrier (particularly for those on a low income) to tenants starting a tenancy that would otherwise be affordable.
Charges also damage the reputation of the letting industry by appearing to be arbitrary and inconsistent. Making them unambiguously unlawful will create a level playing field for all agents and make it easier for tenants to exercise consumer checks.

We recognise that as a consequence of tenants not paying fees to letting agents the costs incurred in setting up a tenancy will be met by letting agents and passed onto landlords. We are aware of a number of letting agents in Scotland who do not charge fees to tenants and whose business models accommodate this.

We do not agree that the Scottish Government should develop secondary legislation to set out permitted fees or a scale of charges that letting agents may levy on tenants.