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NLA welcomes High Court renewals battle

Buy-to-let investors received good news yesterday, with the announcement from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that it would battle a major UK lettings agent in the High Court.

Landlords have long complained that renewal fees demanded by some agents are excessive.

According to the National Landlords Association (NLA), buy-to-let invstors in the south-east wishing to renew their tenancy for a further years are charged ten per cent of rents by agents.

This adds up to thousands of pounds of annual charges for many landlords - even though such charges are widely unknown elsewhere in the UK.

Vice chairman at the NLA, John Socha, said: "The NLA has been pivotal at encouraging landlords to come forward and complain about these 'money for nothing' fees which seem to have become the norm in London and the surrounding region.

"We very much welcome the OFT's decision to seek an injunction in this case and hope this sends out a signal that this fee, where the agent has done nothing to earn it, is unwarranted and unfair and should be abolished as soon as possible."

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