gizzmo
25-07-2005, 14:24 PM
Hi Guys - I have a rather long winded problem which I hope someone will be able to help me with.
After 6 years of paying Letting Agents to find me tenants I decided to save money and go it alone so I paid for an advert in LOOT. I was inundated with calls from a local independent agency who called me daily until I eventually gave in and let them send some tenants to come and see the place. They couldn't do the viewing themselves, so I left work early that day to show the flat to 2 tenants they sent. The second lady that arrived seemed really nice, she was interested so I referred her back to the agency and told her to contact them in the morning. The next day she had put down £500 deposit to secure the flat so by this time I was pretty much tied in with the agency. I negotiated their fee down to 8% and was pretty chuffed with myself and signed their Terms of Service agreement. However they did not state what their service would cover and I like a fool assumed that it would be pretty much the same as my previous Letting Agent used to do...i.e change the names of the utilities, council tax, do an inventory, put together the agreements, check references and check-in/check-out the tenants. However I later discovered that the only thing their fee covered was introducing the tenants, checking the references and putting together the agreements. I had to do all the other stuff myself. When I asked them about this I suggested that the last agency used to charge a small fee for the inventory that was then passed onto me - and a check-out fee was charged of the tenant when they moved out. They said that they don't do inventories as they didn't want to be accountable for issues that really exist between landlord and tenant only -and that they never charge the tenant for anything as that would be construed as having a conflict of interest. However I subsequently found out from my tenant that they did charge her an introduction fee as well.
Anyway - the tenant wanted to move in within 2 days - she viewed on a Weds, put deposit on a Thurs and wanted to move in on Sat. The agency supposedly checked the references and then sent her over to the property on sat morning with the tenancy agreement for 12 months for me to sign and a schedule 21 notice in advance dated with the last date of the tenancy. She had already signed them herself and although the tenancy was in 2 names - her partner was not present nor had he signed the tenancy agreement. I handed over the keys to her and then followed up with the agency on Monday morning. I brought to their attention the fact that the tenancy agreement was not signed by both parties, or witnessed, and also raised my concern that I had not seen any of the reference checks and wanted them to fax me a copy of those. Days later I was still chasing the reference checks and I discovered that they were actually waiting on a fax from the tenant herself re the references and I later discovered that they had not done any adequate reference checks, no credit checks - just obtained 2 faxes from their employers, and checked 3months payslips and bank statements - which apparently they weren't allowed to send me copies of due to Data Protection act restrictions but invited me to the office to view. However whilst I was still chasing up these references 2 weeks into the tenancy agreement I phoned the director of the agency to find out how they had put tenants into my property without adequately checking references beforehand. They had already deducted their fee at this point. He became abusive down the phone to me and told me to F*** Off as apparently I had been harassing his staff. In my opinion 2-3 phonecalls a week looking for my paperwork was not harassing. Anyway, I was livid that he felt that he could talk to a customer that way after taking more than £1000 from them so asked him if he was regulated by ARLA and he laughed as he told me that it was voluntary and NO he was not as it was a money grabbing rip off for Letting Agents to join it.
Anyway – I later phoned the agency rather distressed and was put in touch with the office manager who was very apologetic, had chased up all the documents and invited me into the office to view the payslips and bank statements and to pick up a fresh copy of the Tenancy agreement that had been signed by both parties. This was 2 weeks after the tenants had moved in. I walked away hoping that I would never have to have any dealings with this agent ever again.
However the tenant herself has proved to be very troublesome – never paying her rent on time, she constantly tells me she will pay it today or tomorrow and then 3-4 days later she still hasn’t. She is currently 25 days in arrears for part of her rent for Jul and has sent me a fax saying that she is experiencing money troubles and feels that under the circumstances she feels she should give me notice to leave. She realizes that she is breaking the terms of the tenancy agreement (as it will only be 4 months by the end of August) and she understands if I want to hold onto her deposit as a result.
I have also since found out that the reason she was in such a hurry to move into my flat was because she was being evicted from her last flat. She had left the tenancy agreement with my contact details in the property she was evicted from and the landlady had called me up and given me a run down of all the things that she had done. The list was endless and every landlord’s nightmare. I am now happy that she wants to give notice to leave – so that it doesn’t have to get to the point where I have to evict her – but at the same time I don’t want her to trash the place so I have told her verbally that as long as she leaves the flat on the agreed date in the state that it was when she moved in I have no issues about returning her deposit to her. This I have done as an incentive to prevent her from trashing the place as she had done to her previous landlady. The tenant does not know that I know about her last landlady and what had happened at all. I prefer to consider myself informed so that I can tread carefully – yet she has not got any idea that I know all this stuff.
Now – if the tenant wants to end the tenancy after 4 months, what recourse do I have vs the agency – as I really have no desire to do business with them ever again. Our Terms of Service agreement states that if the tenant breaches the terms of the agreement, they will require one month to find another tenant and suitable access to the property.Can they send people to the property while she is still living there?
Also the agreement states if they do not find a suitable tenant within a month – then they will refund me the fee for the remaining term. Can I allow them to attempt fulfill their side of the contract but not like anyone they send me so that they have to give me the money back and walk away? Or should I just cut my losses and walk away? I have no idea that the tenant herself is actually going to do as she says and leave the property on the agreed date. She has not given me any notice in writing, and given her history I wouldn’t be surprised.
I’d value any advice or help that anyone can give me – and sorry for the long winded description…..couldn’t see how to cut it down further without giving you all the details.
Thanks in advance.
After 6 years of paying Letting Agents to find me tenants I decided to save money and go it alone so I paid for an advert in LOOT. I was inundated with calls from a local independent agency who called me daily until I eventually gave in and let them send some tenants to come and see the place. They couldn't do the viewing themselves, so I left work early that day to show the flat to 2 tenants they sent. The second lady that arrived seemed really nice, she was interested so I referred her back to the agency and told her to contact them in the morning. The next day she had put down £500 deposit to secure the flat so by this time I was pretty much tied in with the agency. I negotiated their fee down to 8% and was pretty chuffed with myself and signed their Terms of Service agreement. However they did not state what their service would cover and I like a fool assumed that it would be pretty much the same as my previous Letting Agent used to do...i.e change the names of the utilities, council tax, do an inventory, put together the agreements, check references and check-in/check-out the tenants. However I later discovered that the only thing their fee covered was introducing the tenants, checking the references and putting together the agreements. I had to do all the other stuff myself. When I asked them about this I suggested that the last agency used to charge a small fee for the inventory that was then passed onto me - and a check-out fee was charged of the tenant when they moved out. They said that they don't do inventories as they didn't want to be accountable for issues that really exist between landlord and tenant only -and that they never charge the tenant for anything as that would be construed as having a conflict of interest. However I subsequently found out from my tenant that they did charge her an introduction fee as well.
Anyway - the tenant wanted to move in within 2 days - she viewed on a Weds, put deposit on a Thurs and wanted to move in on Sat. The agency supposedly checked the references and then sent her over to the property on sat morning with the tenancy agreement for 12 months for me to sign and a schedule 21 notice in advance dated with the last date of the tenancy. She had already signed them herself and although the tenancy was in 2 names - her partner was not present nor had he signed the tenancy agreement. I handed over the keys to her and then followed up with the agency on Monday morning. I brought to their attention the fact that the tenancy agreement was not signed by both parties, or witnessed, and also raised my concern that I had not seen any of the reference checks and wanted them to fax me a copy of those. Days later I was still chasing the reference checks and I discovered that they were actually waiting on a fax from the tenant herself re the references and I later discovered that they had not done any adequate reference checks, no credit checks - just obtained 2 faxes from their employers, and checked 3months payslips and bank statements - which apparently they weren't allowed to send me copies of due to Data Protection act restrictions but invited me to the office to view. However whilst I was still chasing up these references 2 weeks into the tenancy agreement I phoned the director of the agency to find out how they had put tenants into my property without adequately checking references beforehand. They had already deducted their fee at this point. He became abusive down the phone to me and told me to F*** Off as apparently I had been harassing his staff. In my opinion 2-3 phonecalls a week looking for my paperwork was not harassing. Anyway, I was livid that he felt that he could talk to a customer that way after taking more than £1000 from them so asked him if he was regulated by ARLA and he laughed as he told me that it was voluntary and NO he was not as it was a money grabbing rip off for Letting Agents to join it.
Anyway – I later phoned the agency rather distressed and was put in touch with the office manager who was very apologetic, had chased up all the documents and invited me into the office to view the payslips and bank statements and to pick up a fresh copy of the Tenancy agreement that had been signed by both parties. This was 2 weeks after the tenants had moved in. I walked away hoping that I would never have to have any dealings with this agent ever again.
However the tenant herself has proved to be very troublesome – never paying her rent on time, she constantly tells me she will pay it today or tomorrow and then 3-4 days later she still hasn’t. She is currently 25 days in arrears for part of her rent for Jul and has sent me a fax saying that she is experiencing money troubles and feels that under the circumstances she feels she should give me notice to leave. She realizes that she is breaking the terms of the tenancy agreement (as it will only be 4 months by the end of August) and she understands if I want to hold onto her deposit as a result.
I have also since found out that the reason she was in such a hurry to move into my flat was because she was being evicted from her last flat. She had left the tenancy agreement with my contact details in the property she was evicted from and the landlady had called me up and given me a run down of all the things that she had done. The list was endless and every landlord’s nightmare. I am now happy that she wants to give notice to leave – so that it doesn’t have to get to the point where I have to evict her – but at the same time I don’t want her to trash the place so I have told her verbally that as long as she leaves the flat on the agreed date in the state that it was when she moved in I have no issues about returning her deposit to her. This I have done as an incentive to prevent her from trashing the place as she had done to her previous landlady. The tenant does not know that I know about her last landlady and what had happened at all. I prefer to consider myself informed so that I can tread carefully – yet she has not got any idea that I know all this stuff.
Now – if the tenant wants to end the tenancy after 4 months, what recourse do I have vs the agency – as I really have no desire to do business with them ever again. Our Terms of Service agreement states that if the tenant breaches the terms of the agreement, they will require one month to find another tenant and suitable access to the property.Can they send people to the property while she is still living there?
Also the agreement states if they do not find a suitable tenant within a month – then they will refund me the fee for the remaining term. Can I allow them to attempt fulfill their side of the contract but not like anyone they send me so that they have to give me the money back and walk away? Or should I just cut my losses and walk away? I have no idea that the tenant herself is actually going to do as she says and leave the property on the agreed date. She has not given me any notice in writing, and given her history I wouldn’t be surprised.
I’d value any advice or help that anyone can give me – and sorry for the long winded description…..couldn’t see how to cut it down further without giving you all the details.
Thanks in advance.