Thousands of Tenants due PPI Refunds

More than £125m looks set to be repaid to Scottish tenants who have been targeted by unscrupulous agents adding Payment Protection Insurance-style payments to their fees. The tenants who have been wrongly charged the additional fees are to challenge the illegal letting fees scam are ready to ‘trigger an avalanche of PPI-style payouts.’

PaymentProtection Insurance is most commonly associated with agreements made with banks and lenders. However, PPI and similar plans were added to agreements through a wide range of different mediums. Even the likes of online retailers have been found guilty of adding PPI to payments for their services.

The Scottish Sunday Express is leading the charge to help tenants Reclaim PPI-style funds. The newspaper is battling to have a little known 28-year-old law which renders additional charges on tenancy agreements illegal. Only the rent and a refundable deposit are legal permitted to be charged to tenants.

Gordon MacRae of Shelter Scotland said: “This is the newest mis-selling scandal to hit Britain – you could say that this is going to be the new PPI.”

Shelter Schotland have revealed that 1,500 tenants have already reclaimed more than £280,000. Furthermore 90% of Scotland’s 500 letting agents were found guilty of illegally charging fees, this equates to around 135,000 lets from last year.

A petition to ban similar letting fees in England has been launched on the Downing Street website. If this law came to pass, it could have widespread effects on millions of tenants and agents throughout the country.

With millions of Britons having already successfully claimed against their bank or lender for PPI Compensation, they may be buoyed to seek further claims. Successful PPI compensation cases have served to reinforce the sense of financial justice in the country.

The Mis-sold PPI scandal has become the largest financial scandal that the UK has ever faced. With banks and lenders having set aside £12bn already to repay the money that they unlawfully charged their customers. The scandal has affected millions of Britons and became a semi-premanent fixture in the British media.