Two landlords let near-identical flats on the same street in the same month. Both chose full management. A year on, one has paid roughly what she expected, and the other is still discovering fees. The difference was never the headline rate they both compared so carefully. It was the schedule of fees behind it, which only one of them asked to see before signing.
Percentage or fixed matters less than you think
Most full management is priced as a percentage of the monthly rent, collected as the rent comes in. Some firms charge a fixed monthly fee instead. The percentage model scales with your rent, which feels fair on a modest flat and expensive on a large house; the fixed model flips that. Both are legitimate, and on an average property the gap between them is smaller than the gap created by everything else on the schedule. Compare them by asking each firm for the total cost of a worked example: this rent, a two-year stay, one renewal, one mid-tenancy repair. Totals are honest in a way headline rates are not.
The fees that live below the headline
The second landlord's year tells the story. A tenancy set-up fee at the start, covering referencing, the agreement and the inventory. A renewal fee when the tenant stayed a second year, charged for what amounted to a signature. A check-out fee at the end. Between those, the quieter one: a percentage added to contractor invoices for arranging maintenance, so every boiler visit cost the invoice plus the agent's slice. None of these charges is a scandal in itself, and firms are required to publish their fees. The problem is that landlords compare the headline and treat the rest as small print. Ask specifically what happens to the fee when a tenant renews, and what is added to contractor bills, because those two recur for the life of the tenancy.
What fully managed should include before extras
A reasonable baseline for the core fee: rent collection and arrears chasing, day-to-day repairs coordination, periodic inspections with written reports, tracking of gas, electrical and alarm renewals, deposit registration, and serving routine notices. Where a firm charges separately for any of these, that is not automatically wrong, but it belongs in your comparison at full weight. Treat court attendance, refurbishment project management and formal possession work as fair extras almost everywhere.
One email does most of the work here. Before signing anything, write: please list every fee I could be charged over a full tenancy, including set-up, renewal, check-out, and any additions to contractor invoices. A firm with a clean schedule replies with a table. A firm that replies with reassurance has answered a different question, and answered yours too.
With 1,499 property management companies listed on this site, you can build a shortlist that competes on the whole schedule rather than the headline. Compare managing agents in your area, or describe your property once and gather quotes, then send that email to each firm on the list.
Keep the replies. Whichever firm you choose, the table they sent you is the document that settles every fee conversation for the next five years.
