Letting Agents v Gas Safe Engineers

[Viper Gas]

Hi guys,

I have been working for myself for some time now and have quite a few years experience under the belt but recently I decided to work for a letting agent.

On my first job (for a boiler change) I quoted him what I thought was a fair price while keeping in mind he wanted to make something out of it himself. I intended to allow him 10% of the final cost to the customer. You can imagine my surprise to hear he wanted to make around £500 for the lead.

I am not willing to drop my prices below what I think is fair so needless to say it makes it very difficult for me to win any work from his landlords if he wants such a large cut. I am a Gas Safe Engineer, something which has cost me time, money and effort. Now it is time to start reaping the benefits of this auspicious title, is it not?

Can anyone tell me about their experiences with letting agents or how they work with them so that everyone is happy?

Cheers

DD368

 

[GrahamM]

Not much experience directly, but I know £500 for doing nothing is taking the pee.
Your 10% offer sound fair to me.

 

[diamondgas]

DD368, I do maintenance and repair for a letting agent. They won't take me up on instalation or replacement. Too expensive they say! Personnaly I'd say make as much as you can when you can coz they'll drop you like a stone should someone less expensive come along!

At the end of the day you bill/quote the letting agent. Entirely up to them how much they want to make. It all depends on how much the contract means to you as to how much you're willing to compromise.

I've found that letting agents don't want any hastle from the landlords, or the tenants. I tend to arrange all the CP12s and contact the tenats direct to arrange visits... that has worked for me ....

 

[villa_tom]

I don't see why he should make a penny the slimey little leech

 

[REDSAW]

make out your quotation, charge the letting agent £50 for the quote (redeemed of the price of the job) tell them to put whatever they like on top.
that way they will pay even if you dont get the work from there greed.

otherwise tax man after you for 40% of the £500, eh?;

 

[Lee]

I do some work for letting agents.... they do however want 10% of job price. So I have to bill them my price plus 10% pls VAT. When they do pay I get a statement saying they have stopped 10%. This is not done on big jobs limit £50 I think. This allows them to show the landlord my bill, saying it is total cost. However I dont know if they add another charge on to that as a management fee(not my problem). But I trust them about as far as I could throw something really heavy!!!!!

 

[gaspastemania]

I was approached by a letting agent a few months back asj=king me to do 10 landlord certs for £180 or there abouts . When i said no chance he replied 'well my last plumber use to do them for that ' which i replied ' he is obviously a mug' !
Upto you if you want to do work for them maybe o.k to bring some coin in as you have just started out but not a loss in m y opinion if you dont do work for them .

 

[REDSAW]

I was approached by a letting agent a few months back asj=king me to do 10 landlord certs for £180 or there abouts . When i said no chance he replied 'well my last plumber use to do them for that ' which i replied ' he is obviously a mug' !
Upto you if you want to do work for them maybe o.k to bring some coin in as you have just started out but not a loss in m y opinion if you dont do work for them .

why isnt he doing them now i would ask.

 

[tackleburger]

They are leeches but need to make money. i find it quite depressing i did a boiler swap for an agent recently after heavy negiotiation I agreed to swap a combi out for a Vallant (I am the only Vallant registered guy in town) so I give the five year warranty. So they wanted an 831 I started at £1500 ex vat which is what i usually charge for that sort of job. They wanted me to do it for...wait for it.....£ 1200 including VAT so I told them best price was £1400ex VAT or I walk and that's that. I would be doing that assuming some goodwill comes my way in terms of other small works etc.

Two weeks later I was asked to do the job 6 months later heard nothing else from them. Did a Gas Cert for a mate who rents property out I charge £45 ex vat for boiler and cooker no service. He forgot to hand in a copy to the agent and recieved a bill for £90 off them. Another one I know takes £75 for the same thing.

Some of the charges in the rental sector are big but when you give a price to do anything the treat you like your sub-human. label a boiler and you wont work for some landlords ever again. If I ever get asked by any letting agents to do work of any kind, I drive round and give them a list of prices and if they don't like it suits me fine. I value myself and my elected profession and people who sit behind a desk with no real skills are not going to ride roughshod over me. It's high time we realise our worth and understand that wearing a suit to work doesn't give others superiority.

As far as I am concerned agents can keep their £30 a time fire and backboiler safety tickets as they are the only ones I ever get offered but the £75 ex vat price tag for a service, safety ticket, and thermocouple 9which is probably going to save the landlord money in the long run0 usually means I don't get the job.

 

[Viper Gas]

I can see this is a bit of a hot topic, every one has given great input.

thanks.

I can see now my approach is not far off what it should be.

I will continue to price as i think is fair and then he can add what he wants on top.

I will continue to charge for intial inpsection and take it off the installation bill if I do the job.

Cheers Guys

DD368

 

[tamz]

Letting agents are scum who are exploiting a market (especially you (not personally)). If you can in any way aviod them, steer well clear. If you are depending on them for work you would be better getting a form into Tescos where you will be better thought of.

 

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

Letting agents are scum who are exploiting a market (especially you (not personally)). If you can in any way aviod them, steer well clear. If you are depending on them for work you would be better getting a form into Tescos where you will be better thought of.

You'd probably be better paid from Tesco too, esp when you include staff discount.

Tamz - you not into boxing?

 

[tamz]

Tamz - you not into boxing?

Not anymore:mellow:. I could have a walk down the street and see a better fight at shutting time.

 

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

I try and avoid those street.
Mr TP is out watching the fight. Me - i'm about to watch some Big Bang Theory - it makes me laugh a lot

 

[tamz]

I try and avoid those street.

Taxi ranks are better:90:

 

[BLOD]

The letting agents I do work for keep around 10% of what I invoice them for themselves.
£500 for a boiler sway ? Either a very big boiler or he's a greedy ba@£$rd :61:

 

[EPH]

We work for 2 and they're excellent. Both pay the money straight into our account for what's outstanding every 14 days other than large installs where the landlord pays us direct.
We know the money's good and regular so give them the service they pay for.
Not all the same, like gas engineers don't tar them all with the same brush.

 

[mickie]

i pretty much only work for a letting agent, i do a lot of cp12s and fit a few boilers now and then, they get 10 quid ontop of the cp12s and 10% on everything else, they're always good for the money..

always seem to be priced out of the big jobs though due to the 10% and hate working with some of the tenants, 1 example on friday, 10yr old in the house on his own lets me in, their is a carpet but you cant see it anymore, its that dirty, the boiler is covered in fat and you walk out the house needing a shower..

but if it wasnt for them i'd not have a job, i literally get 1 private job a month, maybe im doing something wrong, dunno, but they have a lot of propertys and it keeps me in work all yr round

 

[diamondgas]

As said before we shouldn't tar all with he same brush! Personally Landlords & agents make up around 30% of my income! Some are good some not so ... ! I've experienced the tight fisted and been dropped by them. In Hindsight that was a blessing for me! Still someone had to step in to my place there, and that someone is making a living too ....!

 

[Pcplumb]

As far as I am concerned agents can keep their £30 a time fire and backboiler safety tickets as they are the only ones I ever get offered but the £75 ex vat price tag for a service, safety ticket, and thermocouple 9which is probably going to save the landlord money in the long run0 usually means I don't get the job.

I work for a social landlord and can totally relate to this. Penny pinching instead of a common sense aproach, so so frustrating!

 

[unguided1]

Letting agents have learned to avoid me as I got extremly hacked off with going into properties telling them what needed doing putting in a price and they go and get someone else in to do the work, also a number of jobs I did do for example a warm air unit ripped out and a complete heating system with gas boiler installed in 5 days as they needed the property for someone to move in on the weekend then argued the toss over some extras like sorting out tap washers and sanitising the DHW roof tank

 

[BRAPS]

landlords very often trust letting agents to arrange the work at the best price yet many agents will not bother getting other quotes so once on their good side it can be very rewarding as long as you don't take the micky. Most agents and landlords want someone reliable and competent, i deal with a lot of agents and they all tend to use one plumber If you are going to pay an agent commission for a job and they want your bill to include this then just make sure they sign a commission slip or invoice you for the commission and then you can legitimately claim it as an expense on your yearend accounts.

 

[stevetheplumber]

ive not met a good landlord or letting agent in 40 years maybe its a london thing those ive worked for have always been hard work for little gain

 

[doitmyself]

Hang on a minute! The Agent will be deducting up to 20% of the rental for his "management" fees, which is £1800pa on a £750 monthly rent. Now he wants to take another £500 from the landlord for organizing the installation of a boiler.

I wonder what the landlord would say if he knew what was going on?