No Contract no obligation to pay further fees to estate agent?

[michelle9282]

Hi

I am currently renting my property to reasonably good tenants, they have been in the house for approx one month so far. I am having problems with the estate agents in terms of them being slap dash at notifying me of any issues causing me to have to telephone them to find out what the problems are 1) them failing to set the deposit figure at the amount we agreed and them subsequently trying to increase the tenants rent each month due to the estate agents mess up!! this caused my tenants to be rather annoyed! 2) supplying me with an incorrect date for my tenants moving in 3) failing to transfer the rent to my bank account on time, failing to notify me of a delay, causing me to chase. So obviously they are not delivering a good service for which i am paying £60 a month for! I have complained and told them i am not happy. They never apologise for their mistakes, they tell me to give them slack!

Moving onto the subject of the contract. I have a tenancy agreement with the tenants which the estate agents set up and the document has been signed by both parties. However i have not signed a contract from the estate agents setting out their fees - their general terms and conditions. I am obviously not happy with the service they are providing and am potentially looking to terminate the management with the estate agents based upon the poor levels of service so far. Could they wack me with a fee for finding the tenants if they have failed to make me aware of the fees payable if i choose to do so? I have already paid £200 at the start of the tenancy for some work they did for me, but due to the absence of a contract i dont know what it was for!

What do you think?

[westminster]

If you are de-instructing these agents, and you haven't signed a contract, I'd be inclined to refuse to pay any further fees, and wait for the county court claim to arrive. If it doesn't, sorted; if it does, make sure you have good evidence of the agent's incompetence. Bear in mind that the fact you didn't actually sign a contract doesn't mean there is *no* contract - contracts can be oral/verbal, and the fact is, the agent has done some work for you in finding a tenant, however unsatisfactory the management side.

[michelle9282]

Thanks for your response. They havent even verbally confirmed to me the charges if i was to cease business with them. They have been pretty rubbish to be honest. I initially paid £200 towards the sourcing of my tenants (i presume this was for this part!), again they failed to breakdown in writing what the charges entailed.

I am going to wait until the end of the 6 months tenancy then confirm to the estate agents that i no longer require them to manage the property.

Many Thanks

[jjlandlord]

Based on what you said, it would seem that you and agent agreed: (1) that they be paid £200 to find a tenant and related paperwork (e.g. tenancy agreement), (2) that they be paid £60 a month for the property management.

If that so, I see no problem if you inform them that their service won't be needed anymore.

I'd wait until after they paid you any outstanding rent and immediately inform the tenant that agent does not manage the property anymore and that he should pay the rent directly to you.
If the agent's address is the address of service for tenancy-related notices (section 48 of L&T Act 1987), at the same time I'd also issue the tenant with a notice changing that address e.g. to yours.