Guess it's normal then, seems to be newish though, definitely wasn't the case in 2003, when I last rented a place via an estate agent. Oh well, looks like we're going to have to pay up, but I am going to make it clear what I think and ask them to explain the charge to me, just so they can hear for themselves how full of sh!t they are. Oh, and sorry for the metaphor used above, just angry at the way things are. It's not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but it just makes you want to scream!