As a novice 'accidental landlord', I once had a similar scenario whereby the estate agent had written* into the contract that they would get a repeat fee for every year the original tenants renewed their tenancy agreement. To get round this I simply told the estate agent that the tenants were not going to renew the agreement, and privately drew up a new agreement, cutting out the state agent. Now if I have to use an estate agent I insist on only paying them a 'finder's fee'. Foxton's got into trouble doing something similar, something along the lines of writing into the agreement that if the property was ever sold to the tenants, they would get a cut of the sale price. *When I say written, the estate agent had infact sneakily given a website link to explain this particular T&C. It could be argued that not everyone has access to the internet, so therefore it was an unfair contract.