How many actually publish
Of the forty eight agencies ranked across Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Dundee and Aberdeen, thirteen publish a landlord tariff. That is roughly one in four.
The distribution is uneven. Manchester is the most transparent city, with five agencies publishing, including one full schedule covering managed, letting only and takeover work. Aberdeen is the least, with exactly one, and that tariff is a PDF linked from a fees section rather than a page you can read.
Some of the gaps are accidental rather than deliberate. One Manchester agency's fees page returns an error. One Dundee agency's fee pages refused every attempt to load them. Those are not policy decisions, but the effect on a landlord trying to compare is the same.
What the law requires
In England this is settled. Under consumer protection legislation covering letting agency work, agents must display a list of their fees, state whether VAT is included, and do so both on their own website and prominently in any office. Local authority trading standards enforce it, and penalties can follow. An English letting agent with no published fees is not exercising a commercial preference.
In Scotland the framing is different. The statutory Letting Agent Code of Practice requires an agency to set out its terms clearly and in writing, including all charges, before a landlord enters into an agreement. That is a requirement about the contract rather than the shop window, so a Scottish agency can lawfully quote on enquiry. It still has to be specific with you before you sign, and it is enforceable at the First-tier Tribunal if it is not.
The reasons agencies give
Three come up repeatedly, and all three have some merit.
- Every property is different. A one bedroom flat and a licensed house in multiple occupation are genuinely different work. This is a fair point about the one off charge and a weak one about the management percentage, which is nearly always a single figure.
- Rates are negotiable. Publishing a rate the agency then discounts makes the published figure look dishonest. Reasonable, although a published maximum solves it. One Manchester firm does exactly that, capping management at twelve percent including VAT.
- Competitors would use it. True, and it is why price lists cluster once one firm in a city publishes.
The reason that is rarely given
A price is easier to defend once someone is already invested in the conversation.
A landlord who has read a tariff online compares it against three others in ten minutes and never calls. A landlord who has had a valuation, been walked round their own property and met someone they liked is a different prospect by the time the fee comes up. That is not sinister. It is how most services are sold. But it is a choice made in the agency's interest rather than yours, and it is worth naming.
What it tells you
Less than you might think about price, and quite a lot about how the relationship will run.
Non-publication does not predict an expensive agency. Some agencies with the strongest review evidence on this site publish nothing at all, and the Manchester agency with the clearest price list has almost no reviews. Price transparency and service quality are close to independent of one another in the data we have collected.
What it does predict is friction later. Charges you have to ask about before signing tend to be charges you have to ask about afterwards. This is why fee transparency is one of the four criteria in our ranking method, and why it is used as the tiebreaker rather than as the main test: where two agencies are close on everything else, the one that will tell you the price goes higher.
What to do about it
- Ask for the complete written schedule before any valuation appointment. Say you are shortlisting on year one total cost.
- Specify what you want included: management percentage, whether VAT is in or out, set up or tenant find, inventory, renewal, additional inspections, serving notice, and anything payable after termination.
- Compare the year one total rather than the percentage, because a low percentage with a high set up fee often loses to the reverse.
- If an agency will not send it, that is your answer, and it costs you nothing to have asked.
Our fees guide collects every tariff we have been able to verify, so you can walk into that conversation already knowing what the market charges.
Common questions
Is a letting agent legally required to publish its fees?
In England, yes. Letting agents must display their fees, including whether VAT is included, on their own website and in their offices, and enforcement sits with local trading standards. In Scotland the requirement is framed differently, through the statutory Letting Agent Code of Practice, which requires clear written terms including charges before an agreement is entered into.
Does refusing to publish mean an agency is expensive?
Not necessarily, and the data does not support that assumption. Some of the agencies with the best review scores publish nothing, and the agency with the best price list in Manchester has the thinnest review record on the page. Treat non-publication as a question to ask rather than a verdict.
What should I do if an agency will not give me a figure?
Ask for the complete written schedule before any meeting, and say you are comparing on year one total cost. An agency that will not put its charges in writing before you commit is unlikely to become clearer about money later.
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