Secret Commissions & Unfair Surcharges

We at Jeremy Jacob wanted to write this blog post concerning the subject of Management Fees and Secret Commissions / Surcharges.

We at Jeremy Jacob offer a management service. This is a property management service that ranges from customer service support, cleaning services, mail handling, Inventory services, utilities support, gas engineering and boiler support, electrical engineering, energy performance certification, decoration and/or refurbishment services, furniture removal or storage, furniture ordering, delivery and installation, key holding services, and legislation/law provisions.

The Landlord pays Jeremy Jacob additionally every month for this service. This service includes Jeremy Jacob being the one point of call at all times for the Tenant and Landlord. We further handle on the Landlord's behalf their property (further with any associated services) when it needs due care and attention (by consulting with the Landlord every step of the way).

So when the property needs maintaining, the Landlord benefits from paying Jeremy Jacob for the management service, i.e. the handling or overseeing with no extra fees involved. That’s the insurance so to speak, i.e. a reputable professional with expertise to deal with such items.

We work with a number of contractors. We have developed and forged relationships with contractors over a number of years. We select contractors that we believe are reliable, perform excellent work, and are competitively priced. Not to forget that can be trusted.

There have been recent news stories of agencies profiting on top of this service by charging Landlords secret surcharges for handling the overseeing of contractor services or agreeing secret commissions with contractors as an agreement for providing a volume of work.

We feel that this is inappropriate.

Jeremy Jacob can’t help but feel extremely uncomfortable to make commissions or surcharges out of a contractor. Not only is this unethical, but it also means that a contractor will likely price their work higher in price. Who therefore absorbs this cost? We would guess the Landlord.

First of all, we at Jeremy Jacob will advise our Landlord to pay for possible property work to be completed unless it will benefit/enhance the property or foster and harmonise a healthy Tenancy. Secondly, we endeavour to do this in the most cost effective way. Thirdly, we will not profit from selecting any contractors in the form of any secret commissions or adding on surcharges for handling the process. The result - to create value.

We want to add value(s) to your Letting experience.

Jeremy Jacob Letting Specialists are a member of: The Association of Residential Lettings Agents (ARLA), The National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS), The Property Ombudsman, The London Rental Scheme, Tenancy Deposit Solutions Ltd (My Deposits) and The National Federation of Property Professionals (NFOPP) Client Money Protection scheme.