sacking utterly useless letting agent

caroline1973lefty

does anyone have any experience of getting out of a contract with a letting agent (ie going to a direct landlord-tenant relationship,without having to pay an enourmous penalty)? I am a tenant and both me and my landlord are fed up with the agent taking a hefty percentage in so called 'management fees' and not doing anything at all for the money - no inspections, no minor maintenance, etc. Every time i call them with a minor request they say they will have to call the landlord - i chase endlessly and get loads of different excuses (so it's obvious they are lying just to get me off their backs). Ususally they claim it is difficult to get hold of the landlord, but the landlord has told me that they never do call him, and i believe him, he's a nice bloke! There are lots of other niggly things and to cap it off the staff are extremely rude and have never once apologised for the frequent problems there have been, ever since i moved in over a year ago.:mad:

In the end i either give up, or have to contact my landlord directly if i want anything done, and he comes and does it.

So we are both wondering why he is paying for a management contract? Apparantly to get out of it it without big penalties, seems he would have to report them to ARLA, the regulatory body. Has anyone ever done this?

Any tips gratefully appreciated!

Premier_2

Don't get involved.

It's all so easy for a LL to blame the LA when he comes face to face with a tenant - that's probably why he's used a LA in the first instance.

If the LL wanted to manage his own property, he simply needs to tell his tenants to contact him directly. (albeit he may still be left with the existing financial obligation to the LA )

Presumably he hasn't offered you the facility to contact him yourself. Ask yourself why.