Advantages and Disadvantages of Renting a Property Through a Letting Agent or a Private Landlord in Edinburgh

When renting a property, you always have the option of renting directly from a private landlord or through a letting agent. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Renting property through a letting agent

This option can be a little expensive but it is totally worth it as it takes away all the workload from you. All you have to do is hire the services of an experienced letting agent and you will instantly have access to hundreds of properties to choose from. This does not mean that you will have to look at all these properties. Your agent will filter these properties and will arrange a viewing only for the ones which are according to your requirements. This means that you won’t have to deal with the landlord until the final agreement. The agent will do all this on your behalf. Moreover, renting a property through a letting agent will also give you a right to redress through the property Ombudsman. The letting agent will create a contract for you with all the duties and responsibilities listed init.

Furthermore, some agents also prepare an inventory, which consists of all the items in the property and their condition. Hence if any item is damaged the tenant will have to bear the expenses. But if the item is already damaged, it will be stated in the inventory as so and thus the tenant cannot be held accountable for the damage. Some agents charge extra for creating an inventory. You must confirm the services they provide before hiring them.

Hiring a letting agent is expensive. You will have to pay them for their services and administrative costs. Another downside of hiring an agent is that it might slow down landlord’s response to problems as there is another person involved in the dealings.

Renting from a private landlord

Alternatively you can rent property from private landlords. This is mostly done by responding to adverts in newspapers, university boards, shops, internet etc. Dealing directly with the landlords cuts the middleman, i.e. the agent and thus can speed up requests of all kinds, e.g. requests for repair. Moreover, the landlord will check the credit history and references for minimal fee or no fee at all as oppose to the letting agents. Dealing with the landlord directly means that there will be a good relationship between the landlord and the tenant and hence less chances of any dispute.

One of the major disadvantages of this process is that there is very little legal redress in case any dispute arises between the parties.

Graham Lamont - About Author:
Graham_Lamont is a marketing officer for Greenlet, property lettings website in Edinburgh. If you want more information on rent in edinburgh, please visit flats to rent edinburgh.

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