Find only services

[Worldlife]

For a "find tenant" only service would there be an option for the agent to:-


Prepare and sign a tenancy agreement on behalf of the landlord
Retain the tenant's deposit
Offer to hold an emergency key
Be able to complete tenancy checks and clear a bankers draft for one year in advance rental within two days.

[MrShed]

Letting agents differ. As there is no set rules, like in rental law, these are basically points up for discussion between you and the letting agent. IMO generally you would have little problem getting them to do certainly 1, and probably 2. You would probably have more difficulty getting them to do 3 and 4 as this is moving more so into the realms of management. Of course, only my opinion!

[Worldlife]

Thanks MrShed

I love to live dangerously!! The Letting Agent is hungry and has took steps 3 and 4 on his own initiative. The proposed tenant is paying one years rent in advance to the agent and the key worry from my point of view is how soon that money will be in my account..

In discussion today the agents respect my decision not to involve them with holding the key

They are not members of an appropriate letting association and I've corrected a number of errors on the AST:-


The AST was in three names and I insisted it was not valid until all three joint tenants had signed it. The agent suggested the agreement could be signed by the third party when she came to England in three weeks time
Said I was not willing to allow occupation of the property with a potentially invalid tenancy agreement and suggested it I could only proceed if the tenancy was altered to two joint tenants and signed by both
The AST had some conditions in it relating to the landlord giving advance notice before the ending of the fixed term if intending to seek the ending of the tenancy. Unfortunately the period and time scale related to a standard 6 month AST and not the 12 month proposed AST
They were at a loss when I suggested the agreement for the furnished letting was not for less than a year and higher than the maximum exempt from stamp duty. If the agreement had been for a year less one day then I suggested that there would have been a low fixed fee stamp rather than duty of 1% of the agreement value
If all works out OK the agent will have provided £600 per annum extra income over and above my own marketing expectations and so I will not quibble about paying the 1% duty . Wonder if I should insist that the tenant's advance rent is paid immediately over to me.


Hope my comments are fair and valid and not obstructive barrack room lawyer rantings!!

Watch this page. I suspect all is genuine and above board if less than 100% competent.

Is there legislation now requiring organisations such as this to retain client funds in a bonded account? Could be a nasty situation if a substantial advance payment such as this became lost in a bankrupt Limited Company.

[Paul_f]

The following are observations that need to be addressed! :-
Thanks MrShed

I love to live dangerously!! The Letting Agent is hungry and has took steps 3 and 4 on his own initiative. The proposed tenant is paying one years rent in advance to the agent and the key worry from my point of view is how soon that money will be in my account..

In discussion today the agents respect my decision not to involve them with holding the key

They are not members of an appropriate letting association and I've corrected a number of errors on the AST:-


The AST was in three names and I insisted it was not valid until all three joint tenants had signed it. The agent suggested the agreement could be signed by the third party when she came to England in three weeks time Not bloody likely! - Also you should sign the AST yourself and not let the agent do it as it might be a complete shambles!
Said I was not willing to allow occupation of the property with a potentially invalid tenancy agreement and suggested it I could only proceed if the tenancy was altered to two joint tenants and signed by both
The AST had some conditions in it relating to the landlord giving advance notice before the ending of the fixed term if intending to seek the ending of the tenancy. Unfortunately the period and time scale related to a standard 6 month AST and not the 12 month proposed AST. But of course it's still applicable even if it is wrong in the AST!
They were at a loss when I suggested the agreement for the furnished letting was not for less than a year and higher than the maximum exempt from stamp duty. If the agreement had been for a year less one day then I suggested that there would have been a low fixed fee stamp rather than duty of 1% of the agreement value. I think you're living in the past here as SDLT replaced Stamp Duty in December 2003 and the agreement will not need to be stamped. Not only that there is no difference between furnished and unfurnished property! This leads me to believe that your AST belongs to the Ark and is not within the UTCCR guidelines to be in plain English! Also have you given your tenant a reasonable time to read it and have you referred them (in writing) to seek advice from a CAB or solicitor before asking them to sign it? - If not you should do!
If all works out OK the agent will have provided £600 per annum extra income over and above my own marketing expectations and so I will not quibble about paying the 1% duty . Wonder if I should insist that the tenant's advance rent is paid immediately over to me.


As the agent is not regulated you are taking somewhat of a (high) risk!

Hope my comments are fair and valid and not obstructive barrack room lawyer rantings!!

Watch this page. I suspect all is genuine and above board if less than 100% competent.

Is there legislation now requiring organisations such as this to retain client funds in a bonded account? Only Regulated Agents!Could be a nasty situation if a substantial advance payment such as this became lost in a bankrupt Limited Company.

[Worldlife]

Thanks Paul - particularly for clarification of paragraph 4 and SDLT.

Will be meeting the tenant and the agent tomorrow to talk about some facilities the new tenant would like done - I've already agreed to these in principle as it seems quite reasonable to improve the property and at the same time make a new tenant happy.

I think my leverage now is that I will push ahead with the improvements once the advance rental has been transferred from the agent to my bank account.

[Worldlife]

Have a cheque from the Letting Agent for twelve month's rent and deposit. Once it is cleared my living dangerously will have paid off well!!

See however follow up thread Invalid tenancy agreement? Agent charging fees to both tenant and landlord (http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=16233#post16233)

Interesting thing is that the tenant wanted us to change the inventory!

The agent had said the tenant wanted some carpets removed and we put on the inventory "Landlord agrees to replace this carpet". The tenant wanted to retain the premium quality Axminster carpets although they are over ten years old. Tenant signed initialled "cancelled" against the two proposed replacements. Also preferred not to accept responsibility for entirely new carpets except for one room where we agreed to replace a newer standard quality carpet showing signs of wear.

[pippay]

If a LL does not give the Tenant time to read and/or get advice before signing it, does it make the Agreement any less valid ?


The following are observations that need to be addressed! :-Also have you given your tenant a reasonable time to read it and have you referred them (in writing) to seek advice from a CAB or solicitor before asking them to sign it? - If not you should do!