Hidden property management charges – a lesson in reading the small print     

At Michael Parkes, we pride ourselves on being completely transparent with our fees. We make no bones about the fact that we will not, and do not, charge “ad hoc” fees or a percentage fee on top of the work that others do on your property.

Put simply, you pay us to do work, and us alone. Part of our role in property management is for us to arrange contractors, maintenance, meetings, etc on your sites and we charge a fair rate to do that.  There is absolutely no need, in our opinion, for fees to be ramped up further for work undertaken by third parties.

The link below shows a news report on a legal case about to hit court which we think will have a lot of ramifications for letting agents and their clients. We don’t believe that they are doing anything illegal – after all, they all have signed contracts stipulating what they charge for – even those “hidden” charges.  But are they fair?   That’s for you to decide – and the courts of course.  We should all be aware of reading the small print in a contract but this is just another reminder that it’s essential for all property owners.  Of course, if you don’t include anything mysterious in the small print in the first place, then you know you’ve got a trusted agent working for you.  We’d like to think that’s us.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/man-charged-616-fit-light-7448055