Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Student’s victory over letting finders’ fees
Paul wins court case against firms
LETTING agents that charged a student fees for renting a house have been ordered to pay him back by the courts.
By law no one should be charged more than their first month’s deposit and subsequent rent.
But it appears some agents have been hitting tenants with additional costs under the guise of anything from administration to application fees.
Queen’s University Masters student Paul Loughran took two such firms to court – and won. He told the Mirror: “They were private tenancies on 12-month contracts for houses.
“They were both in Stranmillis – two different houses in two different years.”
Mr Loughran added he used different letting agents to find somewhere to live in 2014 and 2015.
He said one charged him “administration fees” while the second asked for an “application fee”.
He added: “The reason I brought two cases is because that’s the two most common things they [letting agent fees] are called – application fees and admin fees. Piney Rentals charged me £30 in 2014 and the other one was F5 Property in 2015 to 2016 and I think they charged £36. It was about the principle of the charges rather than the amounts.”
The conflict and social justice student said both firms agreed to repay him following the court’s decision and he warned other students or private renters not to fall into the same trap.
He added: “My advice would be first of all to ask for a break down of what the fees actually cover and to reference my court case Loughran v Piney Rentals and F5 Property.” Welcoming the outcome, SDLP MLA Claire Hanna said: “The amount repayable to tenants could amount to many hundreds of thousands of pounds and we will be monitoring developments closely and supporting the organisations campaigning to ensure this practice is stopped.”