Usual Letting Fees

Back to the letting agent topics...
Are letting agent feed pretty standard at a certain rate?
I've seen a few flats with a few different estate agents and they all went for the "we'll need a week's deposit ...blahh^3... and then that deposit will basically become our admin or whatever fee"...

Is there any benefit then from working with the bigger agencies, like (I dont know) Foxtons or Ludlow Thompson, or will thy have higher fees so that I can futher subsidize their nice offices full of water that they dont offer...

Is one week's rent fee, "ok", or should I look for less than that...?

I'm kind of looking in North London, among other places, any good/bad references for the area?

Thank YOU.

There's no such thing as a 'typical' fee.  They vary widely from agent to agent and the fee charged usually has NO correlation with the quality of service offered.  Some of the larger agents actually charge some of the highest fees (Foxtons are notorious for excessive fees...I've heard this anecdotally), so that should not be any sort of marker for you for what agent to go with.

A typical agent will charge: referencing fee (per tenant), admin fee, plus your standard deposit.  Some agents also charge a check-in fee to pay the check-in clerk when you move in.

Basically, it all depends and you just have to shop around.  Stuff like this isn't regulated so there's no ballpark to give.

Aless is right, they can basically charge what they like.  In London there are more direct landlord lets than in the burbs so I'd try and do that.  Loot is a good place to start your search.

Apparently, Foxtons charges a much higher % of total monthly rent as their fee.  

Britwife is right...if you wanna go private, London is very easy to do so (heck, my husband's an estate agent and WE rent privately! ) - try Gumtree.com and Loot.