20180418 (Wed)
In advising a landlord while acting as his property manager, can he charge a commission for securing a tenant to this landlord?
Similarly, can an estate agent charge a separate fee for rental collection, repairs, and taking care of the property while waiting to rent it out?
Indeed, this is grey area for the professions. Before the VAEP Regulations 1986 is released, I would say speculations are all around. I have asked someone senior in the profession, it seems it is around 5% of collected rental for tenancy administration. Let us say, the total rental is RM36,000 a year, 5% is RM1,800, i.e. RM150 per month for collecting rental of RM3,000. This is actually quite economical for landlord. All other works on repairs should be claimable on bill and no extra charges is incurred to the landlord. We await the official announcement of this percentage on tenancy administration. Hopefully, Estate Agents can thus add value to their landlords.
As for the property managers, the profession will probably make their adjustment also on this. Let us wait and see…