Working for local Real Estate Agent ?

[Wilko]

Hi All - an Arms Only question -

I am short of work so I asked local REA if I could be on their list of contractors for rental property maintenance. Sure they said. Pay us a £100 upfront retainer (for doing the paperwork now, more charges later ...) and fill out these 5 forms, including HMRC letter, insurances, H&S policy, Risk Assessment, PIN number of my bank account and my first born. Ha ha, just kidding, they didn't want my first born.

I was polite, but I was a bit surprised. Is this normal, or should I walk?

Cheers,
David.

 

[Richard Burns]

This is unfortunately quite often normal, however I would not consider working for someone who does this.
The idea is that they are getting you work and so they should be paid for this, I consider it that if they want jobs done then they can pay me to do them.
Insurance, UTR, H&S and RAMS is acceptable but the rest is just a business ploy that many accept so it is kept going.

 

[Wilko]

Thanks RB.
It did set off my BS detectors with them wanting £ with no mention of when or if work would be coming. They could have 1 fella on the list ahead of me ( ) or 1000 ( ) .
I will gather the other info into a folder for possible future use.