Short answer
Expect a one-off tenant-find fee of roughly half a month's rent, or an ongoing management fee of around 8-12% of the monthly rent including VAT. TQ Lettings charges 8% + VAT for full management.
Letting agent fees in Altrincham and the surrounding areas fall into two shapes, and it is worth being clear which one you are being quoted.
A tenant-find service is charged once, as a percentage of the first month's rent: commonly somewhere between 50% and 100% of one month, often with a minimum fee attached. A management service is charged monthly, as a percentage of the rent collected, typically between 8% and 12% once VAT is included.
TQ Lettings charges 50% of the first month's rent plus VAT for Tenant Find, subject to a minimum, and 8% + VAT of the monthly rent for Full Management. The full schedule, including every optional extra, is on our fees page rather than available on request.
The number that actually matters
Comparing headline percentages is the most common mistake landlords make, because the percentage is only part of what you pay.
Ask any agent you are speaking to what the following cost, and whether they are included or extra: the inventory, the check-out report, deposit registration, renewal of the tenancy, serving a Section 13 notice to increase the rent, and the annual safety certificates. It is entirely possible for a 7% agent to cost more over a year than a 10% one once those land.
- Inventory preparation and check-out report
- Deposit registration with a government-approved scheme
- Tenancy renewal or extension fees
- Serving notices: Section 13 for rent increases, Section 8 where needed
- Arranging and administering safety certificates
- Any charge for arranging repairs, sometimes a percentage of the contractor's invoice
Why VAT is worth asking about explicitly
Agents quote inconsistently. Some show fees excluding VAT, some including. A quoted "8%" that turns out to be 9.6% is a 20% difference on the largest recurring cost of letting your property.
Every figure on this site is shown both ways for exactly that reason.
What you cannot charge a tenant
Since the Tenant Fees Act 2019, the fees an agent or landlord can charge a tenant in England are tightly restricted. Referencing fees, admin fees, inventory fees and renewal fees charged to tenants are all prohibited, and deposits are capped: five weeks' rent where the annual rent is under £50,000.
This matters to landlords because the cost did not disappear; it moved. An agent whose fee to you looks unusually low may simply be one who used to recover it from the tenant and now has to recover it elsewhere.
Is an agent worth it at all?
For a landlord who lives locally, has let before and has a builder they trust, tenant-find only is often the right answer, and we will say so.
The fee earns its keep when something goes wrong: arrears, a disputed deposit, a boiler in February, a notice that has to be served correctly the first time. A single mis-served notice can cost several months of rent, which is more than a year of management fees on most properties around here.