Poorly chicken

[sadietoo]

My daughter and two colleagues have recently taken on a rented property in Surrey. The house (which is basically a two up two down with a downstairs bathroom) is costing them nearly £1500 a month, and they have all paid £300 setting up fee to the Agent Countrywide . They signed a lease for a year, and were told by the agent that it was going to be a long term let. The house was in a very poor state when they went to move in to it, with broken glass, badly decorated and not clean, they quite rightly complained, and said that it wasn't fit to move in to. The agent initially agreed, and they arranged to have it professionally cleaned, and some of the rooms redecorated. In one of the bedrooms and in the hallway there are rotten floorboards which the agent is not going to be doing anything about. The girls have indicated that they would like a refund on one month's rent given that the house was in such poor condition that they couldn't move in when planned, (however they have continued to pay their rent). Today, they have been given notice to leave in January (when six months is up) and been told that the landlord would like them out before that. They tried to speak to the agent and were told it was because they were late with their rent. which is not true..they then tried to speak to the manager of the estate agents and this was refused.... obviously they are on a hiding to nothing and need to cut their losses and find something else but really what a way for the landlord and agent to behave....

 

Phew that feels better - Rant over......

[Ain't Nobody Here]

That's a shocking way to treat tenants who are behaving perfectly well . Poor girls, they'll be better off somewhere else by the sounds of it, but what a shame to have to go through that. Hope they find a more professional and honest agent next time.

 

My YS has just moved into a student flat which has a long list of things wrong with it - I had a lovely long chat with a lady in the property management company and she couldn't have been nicer or more understanding. Remains to be seen if everything will be fixed but I'm hopeful!

[soapdragon]

Sadietoo.... is the Letting Agent a member of any professional boy to whom you could report them

[sadietoo]

Sadietoo.... is the Letting Agent a member of any professional boy to whom you could report them

 

Good point Soapdragon, they are a national chain and so I would have thought they may well be. I shall investigate!

[soapdragon]

Sorry, I did - of course- mean BODY not BOY! More haste, less speed!

 

Seriously, this may be the way forward as they have obviously handled the situation very badly - even if they claim they were only taking instruction from the landlord they still have a duty to tenants and to deal with both sides in a fair, equitable and professional manner.

[ohcarolina]

Make sure they don't try and keep deposits. I suggest photographic evidence.

[kinsk]

Agents can only really act on instruction from the Client who is the landlord not the tenants. They have little control over the state of a house when it is let out, other than refuse to take it on their books. I used to work for Countrywide and there was nothing more embarrasing than checking someone into a filthy property but as agents we held no money to make the decision to have it cleaned if that was how the landlords had left it. All we could do is mark it down on the inventory so that if it was filthy when the tenants left then their deposit was still safe.

 

If leases are still the same as when I was doing it then even if it is a twelve month lease then there will be a six month break clause, although from memory the landlord has to give two months notice from a rent due date, tenants one month.

[Patricia W]

Try a website called Landlordlaw. I used this when I had a problem with a letting agent and won hundreds in compensation based on their advice. Lots of free advice for tenants and landlords and the lawyer who runs the site also gives more advice on a specific problem for a very reasonable fee.

[lillybettybabs]

As a landlady myself i find that shocking! Do they have their signed contract?

I don't trust letting agents at all, I do find that they are sometimes playing landlord off against the tenant. I

don't think that they are regulated enough to protect landlords and tenants.I still have to go and check my

property to make sure it is kept clean, tidy and safe for tenants which is something my letting agent should

be doing.

[sadietoo]

Thank you for all your input, and suggestions. I have pointed them to Landlordlaw and suggested they write to both Countrywide head office and ARLA if they still can't get any satisfaction from the letting agents. (for example being "allowed" to speak to the manager!). I do understand that the agent takes their instructions from the Landlord, but they also relieve the landlord of large amounts of commission for "managing" the property for them and it seems some do this rather better than others. There are questions which need answering here, and certainly they will be looking for repayment of the introduction fee from the agent who have done nothing for the money.

[Patricia W]

I found ARLA useless in sorting my problem. In my experience they weren't truly independent as they are a membership organisation.

 

We have a rental house and I now do my own letting by using Landlordlaw as my source of contracts, advice etc. A major advantage for tenants is that they don't pay extortionate fees for introductions etc - and neither do I!

[lillybettybabs]

I think that might be the road i go down soon, letting agents seem to be a law unto themselves.

[sadietoo]

Just a quick update...

 

The girls went into the agents and they agreed to come out to the property. Since visiting the property the agents appear to have changed their tune somewhat and are talking to the Landlord to try and persuade him to change his mind.....hopefully this may resolve yet! Thanks again everyone for the support and suggestions.xxx.