A new controversial paid property viewing service may in fact be illegal according to a representative from the Property Redress Scheme (PRS).
ViewRabbit, a recently set up pay-to-view service for home viewings, charges £30 for early access to a property, claiming to reduce no-shows, nosey neighbours and ‘tyre-kickers’.
Conversely, it also requests that estate agents do not accept any offers before all the paid-for appointments are completed, which it claims helps people trying to navigate one of the fastest moving property markets since records began.
However, the service has attracted intense criticism from the industry, from buyers and from commercial property solicitors, who claim the scheme in fact breaks the law.
The Tenant Fees Act 2019 places strong restrictions on the types of payments that can be charged for a property by landlords or letting agents, and only allow the following:
• Rent,
• A deposit worth five weeks’ rent,
• Refundable holding deposit worth one week’s rent,
• Early termination fees,
• Tenancy fees capped at £50,
• Utilities, Council Tax and TV License fees,
• Late payment, lost key replacement fees.
Without legal safeguards in place, the £30 fee could land both the service and agents that use it in serious legal trouble and is the first major test of two-year-old law.
As well as this, people are not too enthused with the service themselves. One estate agent noted that after he posted a poll on LinkedIn, just 12 per cent of the 3600 respondents said they would pay £30 for a property viewing.
He continued to note that chronological order only matters for the buyer, and finding the right buyer is about exhausting all the viewing opportunities and seeing what the market will pay for the property.