sidam
28-11-2005, 11:39 AM
My husband and I are working in Brussels for the next three years. We have, in the interim, let out our flat (one year tenancy) using and agency in Islington who act for us as letting agents and provide full management.
Before leaving, I had the flat professionally cleaned and assumed the pending inventory would reflect this. Alas, a year later, we have learned that the mandatory inventory we thought was in the hands of our management company was: either lost; or the company went out of business; or it was never done. Today we received the checkout list which was prepared by another company unfortunately without benefit of an inventory; and it was gruesome reading indeed. The list includes a broken freezer which our former tenants claim never worked, though we never heard anything about this during the tenancy. The agency cannot be helpful because they never saw the flat at the beginning or end of the tenancy, and in fact visited it only once during the tenancy - they are required by contract to visit the flat four times a year. Meanwhile, new tenants have been found and a new inventory has arrived, which predictably reflects the dire state of the flat as left by the first tenants, but also states in small print that the flat will be cleaned. To corroborate our claim that the flat was in pristine condition when we handed it over to the agency, I have contacted the cleaning company which has sent a copy of their check-out list and bill. This won’t help our new tenants who arrived to find a dirty flat and are already very unhappy. They also seem to be under the impression that the previous tenants’ furniture would remain–we have offered our flat partially furnished. The Agency says that, as they are Spanish speaking, they must not have understood. They are now going to provide a long list of repairs they want done. We are naturally concerned that miserable tenants might make our lives difficult, while the agency's neglect is worrying us. How can we get the situation in hand and keep our agency in line and do their job?
Thanks for any advice.
Gayle
Before leaving, I had the flat professionally cleaned and assumed the pending inventory would reflect this. Alas, a year later, we have learned that the mandatory inventory we thought was in the hands of our management company was: either lost; or the company went out of business; or it was never done. Today we received the checkout list which was prepared by another company unfortunately without benefit of an inventory; and it was gruesome reading indeed. The list includes a broken freezer which our former tenants claim never worked, though we never heard anything about this during the tenancy. The agency cannot be helpful because they never saw the flat at the beginning or end of the tenancy, and in fact visited it only once during the tenancy - they are required by contract to visit the flat four times a year. Meanwhile, new tenants have been found and a new inventory has arrived, which predictably reflects the dire state of the flat as left by the first tenants, but also states in small print that the flat will be cleaned. To corroborate our claim that the flat was in pristine condition when we handed it over to the agency, I have contacted the cleaning company which has sent a copy of their check-out list and bill. This won’t help our new tenants who arrived to find a dirty flat and are already very unhappy. They also seem to be under the impression that the previous tenants’ furniture would remain–we have offered our flat partially furnished. The Agency says that, as they are Spanish speaking, they must not have understood. They are now going to provide a long list of repairs they want done. We are naturally concerned that miserable tenants might make our lives difficult, while the agency's neglect is worrying us. How can we get the situation in hand and keep our agency in line and do their job?
Thanks for any advice.
Gayle