Agency Agreement ended; how is Tenancy affected?

[jimdunn]

Today I gave the agreed 2 months notice to my letting agent to end our 12 month contract. Our 1 year AST with the tenant expires on the 28th July 2009

After our letting agent was bought out by a local agent, our service has gone down hill. One month we pay income tax, the next we don't, another month we pay rental and legal protection, the next month we don't.
Every time we email to query the amounts we get no reply, every time we phone, we get.." sorry she's not it right now" or "we'll take a look and get right back to you" and one month we get our statement, the next we don't.......I couldn't listen to it anymore.

In our contract with the LA it states... if we terminate we are liable to pay £400 or 10% of the rental income for six months as a "finders fee".

My question is....How does this affect our AST with the tenant now we have terminated our contract with the LA?.

Also, Have I got my timing wrong and shot myself in the foot?

I'd appreciate any comments.

Thanks

[MrAgent]

Are you a non-resident landlord (Eg not living in the UK?)

Also, is the agent FSA regulated if selling insurance? I think this is a requirement.

[jimdunn]

Hello Mr Agent.

Yes we are both Non Residents, we live abroad.

Here is the link for our letting agent, to be honest it doesn't tell you much.

http://www.thelettingshop.co.uk/lettings.htm


We first hired Countrwide Residential Letting (CRL) to be our agent back in July 2008, but they were bought by the Letting Shop shortly after, without warning or new terms of business. Ever since then we've had difficulties communicating and getting any information, you know,... keep em in the dark!.
Anyway, all of a sudden our Lets Cover Rental and Legal protection insurance policy stopped, when we looked at the CRL website/policies it stated you must be a customer of CRL to qualifiy for the R & LP insurance. Ever since then there has been inconsistances in when we get/pay for insurance and the amount we are charged for the policy, it doesn't add up..

My gut feeling is that are selling us a policy that doesn't exist, they know the tenant is a gooden and with only a few months left, why not. When I ask to see the T&C'S of the policy we get no infomation only excuses and diversion tactics. We all know its easy to fob people off when you hold the rent money and they are a thousand miles away.

Its funny really, when we was originally looking for a letting agent to manage our house in 2008, we were told by a few people,"dont go with The Letting Shop, they are rude and don't get back to you". For that reason we never hired them, we hired a well known company.

What a laugh...

Jim

[jeffrey]

L has two contracts:
1. AGENCY AGREEMENT with A.
2. LETTING AGREEMENT with T.
They are entirely independent of each other.

[Oneman]

In our contract with the LA it states... if we terminate we are liable to pay £400 or 10% of the rental income for six months as a "finders fee".

Thanks

It's hard to tell without seeing the contract, but I assume this part only applies if you terminate the agency agreement before it has run for six months.

(Also, if the contract specified that the agency would do certain things (eg insurance, accounting etc) and they have stopped doing them, then you could argue the contract has already been breached by the agents.)

As Jeffrey said, the tenants' contract is independent of your deal with the agents, but if you are some distance away you need to make sure there's something or someone else in place to take over the responsibilities from the ex-agency and deal with the tenancy. It's dangerous to assume that the tenants will just leave (or indeed to assume they will stay). For instance, you will to make sure that the deposit protection continues to be sorted and - if the tenants are going - that someone inspects the property and deals with everything.

[jimdunn]

It's hard to tell without seeing the contract, but I assume this part only applies if you terminate the agency agreement before it has run for six months.

(Also, if the contract specified that the agency would do certain things (eg insurance, accounting etc) and they have stopped doing them, then you could argue the contract has already been breached by the agents.)

As Jeffrey said, the tenants' contract is independent of your deal with the agents, but if you are some distance away you need to make sure there's something or someone else in place to take over the responsibilities from the ex-agency and deal with the tenancy. It's dangerous to assume that the tenants will just leave (or indeed to assume they will stay). For instance, you will to make sure that the deposit protection continues to be sorted and - if the tenants are going - that someone inspects the property and deals with everything.

Hello Oneman.

To be honest the contract timeline isn't very clear, I dont know it we are bound for 6 month, 1 year or 5 years. The condition reads.

Termination of contract.

"Two months notice must be given if for any reason either party, Landlord or Agent, should wish to terminate this contract. However, fees remain due as follows".

"The minimum fee for finding a tenant of £400.00 plus VAT or 10% of the rent at the time, for six months, whichever is smaller".

"Should there be a legitimate and enforceable breach of terms by CRL, a landlord may terminate this contract forthwith and no further fees will be payable".

Looks like Im bound for the rest of my sorry life....:eek:

We have also contacted the tenant and he wants to sign a new 1 year AST as soon as possible to secure the house. If we was to sign a new AST before the current AST expires, would the tenants deposit stay in the TDS scheme?.

I appreciate your time