Updating post from Reddit.
We rent in London. Tenancy was fixed term from January 2024 to July 2025, however we asked our landlord to agree to an early surrender given we are buying our first home.
Our landlord agreed we could move out and surrender our lease provided new tenants were found. After we facilitated viewings, new tenants were found and will move in paying an increased rent on 1 April 2025. We will continue to pay rent until 31 March to ensure our landlord is not out of pocket. We are also happy to pay her incidental costs and arrange for a full professional clean prior to moving out.
However, in addition to rent, our landlord’s letting agent claimed that we owe them - not our landlord - an amount in respect of ‘foregone commission’ for the period from 1 April to when our lease had been due to expire (mid-July).
While our landlord managed our tenancy and property directly, we understand she paid her letting agent’s commission in full at the start of our tenancy. This was calculated based on a percentage of our rent for the full term of our tenancy. The letting agent agreed to refund her the commission paid for the unexpired part of our lease but wants to pass on this cost to us.
This didn’t really make sense (or seem fair) in principle to us. To our minds, there is no actual or real loss of income to the letting agent. Our landlord will presumably just apply the amount refunded to her to pay the letting agent’s commission for finding our replacements and the cycle continues… The only way, as we see it, that the agent would be out of pocket is if, in future, our landlord decides to move her business to a new agent after the next tenancy ends. In that scenario, yes, the agent probably would have earned more commission if you assume both leases had run in full and they hadn’t granted any refunds… But that seems purely speculative.
We also thought what the agent wants to do may be unlawful based on our read of the 2019 ‘Tenants Fees’ legislation and related guidance published on GOV.UK, but we are no experts so can’t really say.
Hoping someone here might have experience of this scenario or advice on what we might do in the circumstances. We’re not trying to screw anyone over and, obviously, buying a new home is insanely expensive and literally every penny counts rn…
For added context - the letting agents did not manage the property (they have not been involved in any way, really, since we signed our lease in late 2023). We have a good/warm relationship with our landlord. We have always paid our rent paid on time and in full despite some pretty material issues with the property - primarily our en-suite bathroom repeatedly flooded over the course of several months, which meant many late night/weekend clean ups and even moving out of the main bedroom to sleep elsewhere due to the smell. This flooding continued for months until the landlord paid to have the drains professionally cleared out, which again materially disrupted our use and enjoyment of the property.
Check the contract but this sounds about right (in the legal rather than moral sense). The logic being that if the landlord didn’t receive the commission refund then they would be out of pocket having to pay 3 months commission twice (the end of your tenancy and the start of the next).
You are right that the agent can’t recover from you fees that the landlord will not incur. But if the landlord is liable for the fees they are claimable from you. It doesn’t matter if they seem unfair to you, what matters is the agents contract with the landlord and what fees the landlord is liable for.
Your agreement is with the landlord rather than having any obligation to the agent. So you can refuse to pay directly this to the agent.
But if the fees are incurred then the agent should be claiming from the landlord and the landlord from you. So the outcome is the same but done differently.
However, the agent is probably doing it this way to appease the landlord and to facilitate the early surrender of your tenancy. I am sure the landlord wouldn’t like to be directly paying two sets of commissions, if they did, they may not agree to your early surrender of the tenancy, but thats not really a problem as the costs are claimable from you directly to the landlord.
If the landlord was faced with the charges they would be asking the agent why they should be paying two sets of commissions to the agent who could either reply back well it’s clearly in the contract and the fees are correct or given the situation they will not charge the fees on a goodwill basis.
That’s absolute bollocks. The tenants fees act absolutely prohibits these types of fees. Most fees for tenants are capped at £50 quid or so, just get in touch with Shelter and write a strongly worded letter that you would complain to property mark or something. https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/letting_agent_fees_for_tenants#:~:text=Most%20tenancy%20related%20fees%20are,your%20fixed%20term%20contract%20ends