Letting agent keeps trying to charge me renewal fee!

poppy10_2

poppysarah wrote: »

I was going off the thread title:
Letting agent keeps trying to charge me renewal fee

They asked twice (once by phone, once by letter) and then sent me an invoice and stated that the money would be taken out of deposit if I didn't pay. Might not be harassment, but could certainly scare someone into paying a fee they didn't have to pay.

tbs624

poppy10 wrote: »

They asked twice (once by phone, once by letter) and then sent me an invoice and stated that the money would be taken out of deposit if I didn't pay. Might not be harassment, but could certainly scare someone into paying a fee they didn't have to pay.

The problem here is that this thread contains two posts on the same sort of issue - yours and the one from Tigerpuss - in both of the queries Poppysarah leaps straight in with separate "tenant harassment" posts. Just because an LA behaves badly, it doesn't mean that a tenant has to take an initial extreme view - if the dispute becomes escalated and ends up in a court or adjudication it is so much better for the tenant to be able to show themselves to be reasonable.

Tenant harassment is a serious and distressing offence, but it's a charge that is best reserved for genuine cases.

Many LAs are staffed by people who are untrained, unqualified and without an ounce of common sense, and they like to squeeze every last drop of money out of both LL and T at every opportunity.

Any tenant who gets asks for fees that are exorbitant, unexpected, not detailed to them in their initial contract etc should *always* seek advice from a law centre, CAB or talk to someone at Shelter.

Your deposit paperwork should clearly state what can be taken from your deposit, and again, the LA cannot simply make deductions on a whim (especially when the deposit has been scheme-registered) - a Tenant can and must challenge the LA if they think they have grounds to do so. Having a copy of letters from the T to the LA will help with that. See Barnaby Bear's post (no27), my posts to you (no17) and to Tigerpuss (no32). We often get final respond posts on here from T's who have seen off a LA's demand for unwarranted fees by either a firm letter and/or a telephone call/copy letter direct to the LL.

As I said before, some LL's are unaware ( and no, they shouldn't be) of what their LA is up to but most LLs would work with a T to get this sort of issue resolved, especially if you have been a reliable tenant (see Trillionaire's comments, post 37).

Overreacting, as poppysarah seemed to be doing, doesn't help resolve the situation with the least amount of resultant stress to the tenant.

poppysarah

tbs624 wrote: »

Overreacting, as poppysarah seemed to be doing, doesn't help resolve the situation with the least amount of resultant stress to the tenant.

This issue is going to become more common and being asked twice and being sent an invoice count as bad LA behaviour and could well be classed as harrassment.

If you think people don't get stressed by threats for money then you're wrong.

Would you prefer me to refer to it as bullying?

tbs624

poppysarah wrote: »

If you think people don't get stressed by threats for money then you're wrong.

Do please *try* not to misinterpret other people’s posts, poppysarah: read through again, nowhere have I said that people don’t get stressed by these sort of requests from LAs.

tbs624 wrote: »

Overreacting, as poppysarah seemed to be doing, doesn't help resolve the situation with the least amount of resultant stress to the tenant.

You persist with the drama - an invoice is not necessarily a “threat for money”, neither is a phone call asking you to come and sign something.

The point was that you leapt in to respond to both Poppy10s post and to the one from Tigerpusswith “harassment! demanding money with menaces!”: neiother poster had given enough detail for anything to be construed as harassment, or any other criminal act.

Several of your posts in a number of different threads (when often very scant info has been provided by the OP) , seem intent on inflaming the OP’s situation, rather than suggesting ways in which they could perhaps deal with matters rationally. Have you had lots of difficulties with your own LLs, that perhaps make you over-react?

Once LLs/LAs and Ts get into these downward spirals, then the remainder of the tenancy tends to become one long festering sore of resentment for both parties. IMO your posts often seem to fall into the "he started it, miss/mum" method: it can be far more empowering to to control your own reaction to a situation and calmly resolve things, without unduly escalating them.

You can often get a pretty satisfactory result by using a bit of charm, coupled with firmness and a polite reminder of the broader aspects of the law and, as I’ve previously posted, by contacting the LL direct if it’s the LA that is the problem..

poppysarah wrote: »

Would you prefer me to refer to it as bullying?

I frequently recommend the TROs and/or Shelter, or qualified legal advice, because this sort of issue doesn’t need any label - it just needs a bit of common sense and a firm letter.

poppy10_2

Oh, pack it in you two, this is really juvenile.

tbs624

poppy10 wrote: »

Oh, pack it in you two, this is really juvenile.

'morning poppy.

You are of course welcome to your view point (as we all are), but where another poster misrepresents what I have said in a previous post I am free to choose to respond. You likewise are free to choose not to read and can do so by simply clicking on to another thread: your own situation has been resolved but another poster within this thread had a newer experience and it is important that other tenants don't misconstrue what may or may not constitute harassment

louby_lou

i'm having some trouble along the same kind of lines with my LA, theyre just terrible (14 weeks to mend a broken cooker.....) and i have just noticed that the window frame seems to somehow have a big gap in it and is letting a draft into the flat. im wondering if i should go down the same path and ask for my landlord's details (as the contract only says c/o EA's address) as i'd much rather talk to him about it than the idiots who "work" in my LA. Any thoughts guys? sorry to butt in on this thread btw, hope it gets resolved for you asap!

poppysarah

Ring the council's tenancy support officer if you've been waiting that long. It's a good idea as they'll match up your nightmares with his other tenants problems too.

tbs624

louby_lou wrote: »

i'm having some trouble along the same kind of lines with my LA, theyre just terrible (14 weeks to mend a broken cooker.....) and i have just noticed that the window frame seems to somehow have a big gap in it and is letting a draft into the flat. im wondering if i should go down the same path and ask for my landlord's details (as the contract only says c/o EA's address) as i'd much rather talk to him about it than the idiots who "work" in my LA. Any thoughts guys? sorry to butt in on this thread btw, hope it gets resolved for you asap!

Louby_lou - Has the cooker repair now been dealt with? If not, is it totally unusable or is it just part of it that is?

If this repair * is* still outstanding then write to the LA today (keep a copy, send letter rec delivery or hand deliver it) -

Say that you'd like to notify them of the problem with the window frame and to remind them of the outstanding cooker repair (list dates of previous calls, letters, who spoken to etc) Include a line that says that they are legally required to sort out these repair and maintenance issues within a reasonable time and you would like both matters dealt with within the next 7 days. Give them times/dates on which you can be available to allow access.

Add the line: "please would you let me have my LLs name and address: you will be aware that, by law, this information must be provided to me within 21 days of receipt of this letter"

At the bottom - add cc: Private Sector Rentals Team , xxxxx Council.

Always put any repairs issues in writing from the very start - you need to be able to show when the matter was first raised. If you make the first notification by phone, follow it up with a letter stating " I confirm our phone conversation of (date) when we discussed the following...... It was agreed that ........"
Take photos of the problem where possible and keep these, and your copy letters, safely with your tenancy agreement in case you need to pursue matters further.

ginvzt

Ok, our AST runs out end of November and 2 weeks ago we received a letter from LA asking to sign a new AST for 6 month together with roughly ~£60 charge for renewal. The bitter part is that when we moved in we called them and asked what happens when this AST runs out and we were told that it would just roll on to periodic and there would be no charges. We don't want another AST - we don't want to be tied in this house for another 6 months (we would happily move once we found another house we would like to rent or to buy).

We were going to tell the AL that we are not signing the new agreement and want to go onto periodic, but this sentence from the Shelter website confused us:

Periodic tenants

Once a fixed term tenancy comes to an end it will automatically become a periodic tenancy if your landlord doesn't ask you to sign a new fixed term agreement.

So, since we were asked to sign a new fixed term agreement - where do we stand???