LondonLondon
06-06-2010, 11:37 AM
Hello everyone
We have had a terrible time as first-time letters. We used an established LA (members of the Property Ombudsman scheme) to let our house and paid them for management etc. We found out a couple of weeks ago that our house had been sublet and the original tenant had absconded. We intended to let to a family of around 5 people but found out that 11 people had been living there, 2 or more to a room. The original tenant had charged them rent and taken deposits from them all. They have all lost their money and the bills haven't been paid.
The situation has stabilised over the last week and nearly all the tenants have gone (of their own freewill). Our house is dirty and some repair is needed, but we face loss of rental income for the next couple of months while we try and sort things out (plus we live miles away!).
We have found out that the letting agent let our home to someone on too low an income for the rent, that only 1 name was on the AST even though he was supposed to be living there with his family, that the deposit was released without our knowledge in April to cover May's rent and they didn't tell us this for nearly 3 weeks. We didn't get a contract of any kind (even though we asked them for one). All the info we got about the tenant was by 'phone because we lived 300 miles away; it was only when we got the tenant's details in the post (a few weeks after the tenancy was signed) that we started to worry. He did pay the rent for a couple of months, so we relaxed a bit, but we were clearly wrong to do so.
Plus, when all this came to light, the LA encouraged us to give the subtenants a tenancy but did say that the head subtenant would make a 'small profit' doing this since he would let our house out 'room by room'. We have since found out that this small profit would be around £800. We don't have an HMO licence, but the LA seemed to be encouraging us to allow subletting.
I cannot understand why the LA released the deposit to pay the rent but didn't tell us for weeks. They put us in a situation where there were 12 strangers in our home, each with some right to stay, but left our house totally unprotected. Thankfully, they were quite decent people and didn't trash the house and left without any problem.
Our grievance is with the LA who we maintain have been unprofessional in so many ways. We have written to them, outlining our grievances. The Ombudsman advisor told us that they must be given the chance to sort it out, but even if they compensate us, how can we be sure they will change their ways? I suspect they do this to lots of landlords. And, what kind of compensation can we ask for? Has anybody else been in this situation? I am appalled at how bad the LA is. I have wondered, but have no proof, if they knew about this but allowed it to continue.
Thanks so much.
We have had a terrible time as first-time letters. We used an established LA (members of the Property Ombudsman scheme) to let our house and paid them for management etc. We found out a couple of weeks ago that our house had been sublet and the original tenant had absconded. We intended to let to a family of around 5 people but found out that 11 people had been living there, 2 or more to a room. The original tenant had charged them rent and taken deposits from them all. They have all lost their money and the bills haven't been paid.
The situation has stabilised over the last week and nearly all the tenants have gone (of their own freewill). Our house is dirty and some repair is needed, but we face loss of rental income for the next couple of months while we try and sort things out (plus we live miles away!).
We have found out that the letting agent let our home to someone on too low an income for the rent, that only 1 name was on the AST even though he was supposed to be living there with his family, that the deposit was released without our knowledge in April to cover May's rent and they didn't tell us this for nearly 3 weeks. We didn't get a contract of any kind (even though we asked them for one). All the info we got about the tenant was by 'phone because we lived 300 miles away; it was only when we got the tenant's details in the post (a few weeks after the tenancy was signed) that we started to worry. He did pay the rent for a couple of months, so we relaxed a bit, but we were clearly wrong to do so.
Plus, when all this came to light, the LA encouraged us to give the subtenants a tenancy but did say that the head subtenant would make a 'small profit' doing this since he would let our house out 'room by room'. We have since found out that this small profit would be around £800. We don't have an HMO licence, but the LA seemed to be encouraging us to allow subletting.
I cannot understand why the LA released the deposit to pay the rent but didn't tell us for weeks. They put us in a situation where there were 12 strangers in our home, each with some right to stay, but left our house totally unprotected. Thankfully, they were quite decent people and didn't trash the house and left without any problem.
Our grievance is with the LA who we maintain have been unprofessional in so many ways. We have written to them, outlining our grievances. The Ombudsman advisor told us that they must be given the chance to sort it out, but even if they compensate us, how can we be sure they will change their ways? I suspect they do this to lots of landlords. And, what kind of compensation can we ask for? Has anybody else been in this situation? I am appalled at how bad the LA is. I have wondered, but have no proof, if they knew about this but allowed it to continue.
Thanks so much.