Bad Tenants and Poor Lettings Agents - What do we do?

chief2221

Hi everyone - advice please. My daughter has rented her property through a reputable Letting Agents. They found and a tenant and drew up a contract. My daughter was led to believe that the contract was for 12 months with a 6 month clause. She was sent a confirmatory letter and asked to sign the contract. My daughter duly did this and having trusted the agent, failed to read the contract thoroughly. Anyhow, tenant moved in and for the first 2 months the rent was paid. However, since then the rent has not been paid on time (sometimes upto 3 weeks late) and we have had little support from the agents. When we questioned them they said they cannot keep calling the tenant as it would be deemed as harrasment? The tenant has lost her job and is apparantly claiming housing benefit but is in extreme financial difficulties (according to agents). This month, the agents called to say that tenant cannot pay but can do so in dribs and drabs (so far she is £350 behind). My daughter has taken out insurance but when we asked when the insurance kicks in, they (agents) said that the tenant must be 2 full months in arrears (without having paid a penny) so the fact that she may pay £100 would negate the insurance. To make matters worse, they then said that the contract does not have a 6 month clause and we cannot serve an eviction notice. My daughter is a student and recently gone through a divorce so I am trying to sort this out on her behalf with the agents and if push comes to shove will pay her mortgage for her. I have an interview aranged with the agents next week and I wonder if there is any advice I can go armed with. We have no wish to make this family homeless but we have bent over backwards to help them and we feel we have been taken advanage of by both agents and tenants.

EliteHeat

It's not quite clear from your post how you have bent over backwards to help the tenant.

poppysarah

Housing benefit should be used to pay the rent - it can take 2 months to come through.

Have the LA sold her this "insurance"?

I think your daughter has started a business in which she has little knowledge and has had to rely on a company which exists solely to take money from landlords and tenants. LA will look after their own interests first - are they asking you for their monthly fees yet?

chief2221

Where do I start. Tenant asked if she could move in earlier then agreed date. We agreed - at a real in!!!!!!ence to ourselves. Then they asked if white goods - that were meant to stay in property could be removed. We agreed. Then they changed front door locks (done through letting agents and we only found out after) complaining that they were too stiff. Not true - (certainly nothing that 3 in one oil couldn't deal with). Then rent was late without any prior warning and this carried on for 2 further months. On 3 rd month, tenant said that only a proportionate amount of rent could be paid and rest would be paid following month if that was OK (same excuse as previous month although we were assured by tenant that benefit would kick in. We had no choice but to agree and yes, rent was paid. This month, we were told by agents that tenant cannot pay but will try to pay some of it. In fairness, some rent has been paid but letting agent has taken all of their commission from it leaving my daughter little or nothing and having to wait for the remainder.

All we want is for tenant to honour the contract they have agreed too.

neas

prices of houses only go up innit? :P

gfplux

I you are only stating facts then you should be prepared to name the letting agent on this forum.
It would seem to me that if the covering letter to the contract said there was a 6 month break the letting agent is in breach of contract.
You should find other boards with professional landlords on to get better advise.
Good Luck

chief2221

Hi PS. No, the insurance is part of the fee (I think but I will check). Unfortunately, daughter had no choice but to rent. She went through separation and divorce and couldn't live in house on her own as too many memories. Tried to sell but not successful and decided to go back to uni to change career path. Property agents said "hey, we can rent this blah blah". At the time it seemed a perfect scenario.
The monthly fees come straight out before we see anything and we have been told that housing benefit is already in issue.

shaven-monkey

If you have a contract with the letting agent, make a copy, read it through and highlight text which you believe the letting agent are in breach of it. Anything at all that they've done wrong.

AST contracts are standard, boilerplate and photocopied at great expense (to you) by letting agents, they run for 6 months. Read the contract between yourself and the tenant. There will be a clause which states the notice period required.
copy it, highlight areas you believe the tenant has breached.

Arrange a meeting with the letting agent and take these copies with you and request that the letting agents explain themselves in english. They're being paid and have the time to deal with a client, if they don't have time to deal with a client face to face then they're not worth employing.

Allowing the tenant to take residence before the start of the contract was a mistake, the letting agent should have pointed this out. If that agreement was made in writing, there may be further complications, on the bright side it may mean that the unusual 12 month contract was void before it began.

If the rent is 2 months in arrears, you can evict so i'm not entirely sure what use that insurance policy is to you.
Get written statement from the agent that neither they nor their employees have any personal connection with the tenant which may cause a conflict of interest because they sound like they're doing more work for the tenant than they are for you.

If you're going to end up renting to people on housing benefit, you may as well lease the house to the local council for a set period and let them deal with this sort of crap.

I guess the main moral of this story is that you can't trust people as far as you can throw them so always read the contracts before signing them and always stick to the contracts thereafter.

Sorry I can't be more helpful but you need advice from a solicitor about the contracts. Once you are free from obligation to the tenant and /or letting agent you can start again with a new letting agent or self manage.

50plusabit

Shaven has given excellent advice. Go through this with a fine toothcomb. It may be a good idea, before you go to see the LA to get a letter from your daughter giving permission for them to discuss the situation with you. Might not come up, but they might say it and they would be in the right.
I do think, if you do not get some straight answers then you really do need a solicitor who specialises in housing law.

poppysarah

chief2221 wrote: »

Hi PS. No, the insurance is part of the fee (I think but I will check). ... couldn't live in house on her own as too many memories. Tried to sell but not successful

Insurance is generally a con. It'll never cover the things you need it to.

She should have sold. Only not successful because of wanting too high a price?

chief2221

Thank you Shaven for excellent advice. I am now much more informed then a few hours ago!!