Am I getting ripped off?!

I'm moving to Durham in April/May.

I have found a LOVELY house in Durham city center - it's a new build, and it is the ideal property for us - the landlord is 'pet friendly' as well which is essential as we have three cats.

Now, I have not really had to deal with estate agents or typical landlords since I moved to the UK as I am a vet and for the past two and half years have been living in accommodation that belongs to my practice.

So I'm a bit shocked to find that in addition to a month and a half of rent as a deposit, the landlord wants £900 as a non-refundable pet deposit (to do two 'deep cleans' with two weeks in between so he's charging for the deep cleans and the time that the property is losing rent). We've more or less come to terms with this - as we really love this house and want to rent it.

However now it turns out the Estate Agent is charging £450 in 'administration fees'.

Is this normal?

We had to pay 1/2 a month's rent in "administrative fees" to rent this property, but there was no pet deposit/deep cleaning. That sounds a bit ridiculous - when we moved out of our last flat, we had a professional cleaner come for 4 hours. After that, there was no hair/sign of pets anywhere in the flat, so needing to do 2 deep cleans (why a 2-week wait in between?) sounds over the top.

Yes, there is an administration fee.  These vary greatly and £450 is definitely high.  The lowest I've been quoted is £100 per person plus VAT (£240 per couple).  The highest I've been quoted is £400 or one weeks rent.

I rented with cats and had to pay for a treatment for the carpets when moving out (bio-kill) and had a refundable deposit of two months rent (versus the standard one and a half).  I'd try to negotiate a little if you can. Suggest a higher refundable deposit and carpet treatment.  But ultimately it's the landlords decision.

Maybe the landlord has had problems with renting to pet owners in the past. Pet stains do tend to stick around in carpets which would explain the 2 deep cleanings.

Sadly its a case of paying the admin fee and the pet deposit if you really like the property, or looking elsewhere.

Admin fees are a ripoff though

Admin fee is crazy high. My very expensive letting agent (they're the stupidly posh kind who do a survey on you then drive you around to all their flats) charged this, which is the most I've ever paid -

Reference Fee - £35.00  per person
Admin Fee - £175.00

Admin fees have really gone up in the past year or so. It is a lot, but sadly not outrageous.

Ugh. Yeah it seems like we will have to suck it up to rent the house.

Haha who needs furniture anyway?! :-(