Bristol is considered to be the sixth populated city in Britain. The city’s main source of income for its economy is sea trade. Thus, throughout the year you have letting agents in Bristol, actively looking after the residential interests of travelers and residents who visit the city and want to take up temporary or permanent accommodation here. Many people understand the significance of real estate agents but few have any idea about letting agents. Below we have just provided a simple discussion regarding letting agents and what are the various services provided by them.
What is a Letting Agent?
When you rent out an apartment or home in Bristol, you would need to sign a residential agreement with the landlord. The Letting agent is a facilitator, who helps the tenant and the landlord in this regard and helps to draw the basic terms and conditions of rental agreement for residential property. Letting agents are very commonly used in Commonwealth countries like UK, Australia and even New Zealand. Most letting agents in Bristol charge a service fee which could be a specific percentage paid based on the annual rent.
How do they Operate?
Most letting agents are associated with an estate agent firm, as the nature of services they perform is quite similar. However a few of them might have their own agencies and these professionals deal only with lettings. The main objective of the letting agents would be to help in the tenancy agreements between the landlord and its various private tenants.
What are the different Services Offered by these Letting Agents?
Now that we have understood about letting agents and how do they operate, let us take a closer look at the various services provided by the letting agents in Bristol. These are:
- Introductory-Service: This service is offered by the letting agent to the landlord when a tenant is introduced to the landlord. The service fee of this introductory service would depend on the expertise level of the agent. This service fee is usually a specific amount.
- Administrative-Services: Once a private tenant has been introduced to a landlord, a lot of paperwork needs to be undertaken. This would include the application being processed, undertaking background checks of the private tenants and also creating the residential tenancy agreement. These basic services undertaken by the letting agents fall under administrative services. The amount you need to pay for these services varies and they are usually not refundable in nature.
- Collecting rents: Letting agents also collect rents from the tenants, in lieu of a service fee. The amount would depend on the annual rent paid by the tenant.
- Managing the property- If the landlord is busy and cannot undertake the property management of the rented area, then this management is handed over to the letting agent. The letting agent company thus manages the day to day affairs of the rented property and earns a good service fee for it. This fee would be around 7% of the total annual rent fee, paid by the tenant.