Wish there was a name and shame letting agents!advice please...

kat1982

Im moving, solely to the fact that the letting agents I rent from are complete twonks. When I first took the tenancy, the inventory was completed with me present and is so in depth, Horatio from CI himself would struggle to find anything missing. They took pictures of thr rotting window and stains on the carpet 'for clarity'. You would think this pleasing, but i believe that sometimes you can possibly take your job TOO seriously. I digress...

so, one of the bedrooms had rather fetching decoration and was painted blue, with blue gloss, and blue streaky fitted wardrobes. I asked to decorate, which i got written permission to do so. I have painted, and it was IMPOSSIBLE to paint. The skirting board was rotten on one part and crumbled away when faced with a paint brush, the streaky blue wardrobes refuse to hold the paint and required fourteen coats, and the other fitted wardrobe had to be sanded down through FOUR coats of old paint to be painted successfully,. the house is 1930's and the walls are falling apart, but i think the letting agent will understand that at least. youd think...

so they came to inspect the paint job and complained that there was paint on part of the upvc window and so i have corrected this. on their visit, this was the only thing mentioned and so i assume the rest is fine. However now that I am moving out, I am dealing with another member of the office, who is an absolute imbecile, and is blatantly on an ego trip. He is extremely rude whenever I deal with him, and lacks social skills of any description. When he phoned to arrange to show people round the property, he got agitated that i wasn;t happy with him giving me an hour's notice, instead of the advised 24 as stated in my agreement, and also complained at my objection to him showing them round in my absence by them letting themselves in. He has phoned me four times now to try to arrange the handover date for the property before the last day of my agreement (he obviously has people moving in) and when i today on the fourth phone call 'to discuss handover' explained this to him, and that he was actually repeating info to me, he became even more rude and said 'well it will be myself coming to handover, so we will go through the inventory and if there are any problems with the deposit obviously we will arrnage quotations to have work done and go from there'- blatantly implying that he will be covering the property with a fine tooth comb and ensuring he rips me off tw*t.

the quality of the decorating is not perfect admittedly, but it is a complete improvement on before and ive even done them the favour of putting blinds up in the room in question and the kitchen, as both rooms had no curtain rail or anything when i moved in! I just know he is going to find fault, but in my defence there were no photos taken of the room before, and so I really don't know where i will stand....

my deposit was put into a dps scheme, but the letting agents are not regulated and so i dont know whether this would still apply- im trying to find out online if they should have informed me if this was to be the case so at least i have ammunition?

I have spent the last couple of days cleaning like an insane person but know from every conversation with this idiot that he will dispute my deposit so i want to be well prepared. What are my grounds when they have no comparison of the quality of the work beforehand? is this irrelevant? will i be covered by dps and how do i dispute their attempt to withold my deposit?

If anyone sees my previous posts I find it sad that a landlord is dealing with such a company, i did plan to have cavity wall work donw here for free when i planned on staying, but didnt because the letting agent refused to provide written permission, claiming it could be used for identity fraud....?!?!?! the landlord's name and address are on my tenancy agreement, and ive yet to set up an offshore account....

theartfullodger

Was your tenancy started after 6th April 2007?? If so the deposit MUST be in a protected scheme & there are regulations governing what happens if tenant/landlord disagree on how much of the deposit should be withheld. See

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TenancyDeposit/index.htm

Cheers!

Lodger

Vampgirl

kat1982 wrote: »

Wish there was a name and shame letting agents!

There is: http://www.allagents.co.uk
Not all agents are on there yet and not all have reviews yet, but its a start.

tbs624

Vampgirl wrote: »

There is: http://www.allagents.co.uk
Not all agents are on there yet and not all have reviews yet, but its a start.

Keep spreading the word;)

tbs624

Kat - the good thing is that you got written permission to redecorate. You should also have taken photos of it prior to the work IMO but hindsight being a wonderful thing....

With the blinds, this LA employee will probably point out that you should have had written permission to put those up so, if you didn't get that, you may want to think about removing them & making good the holes before he has the opportunity to make an issue of it. ( You could alternatively ring the LL & check direct what s/he would like you to do as if you are prepared to leave the blinds it probably benefits the LL)

On viewings - your LA may *not* let himself in to your home without your explicit permission. You do not actually have to agree to any viewings if you would rather not or you can say "only on a sat between 1 and 3 or a tues between 5 and 7" or whatever suits you, if you want to be generous.

You should let the LL know how this LA behaves - many LLs have absolutely no idea of how their T gets treated. Copy any correspondence with the LA direct to the LL and keep copies yourself.

I keep saying it but it is a fact - anyone can set themselves up as a LA - no quals, no training, no regulation, no bl**dy common sense required to set up in business. ( There are reqmts for those who wish to register with ARLA etc but they don't cover all employees and it doesn't stop them being a chuff, it just means you have a code of conduct under which to pursue any complaints)

Take photos before you leave (inc .ones of your meter readings) and if poss have a friend there with you when the lovely man comes along.

They *cannot* unilaterally make deductions from your deposit - they have to give reasons and costings in writing and you can challenge these if you don't agree. You do not have to put up with rudeness from polyester suited LA employees( or indeed those with any other attire) so if he gets mouthy stand your ground and tell him you won't tolerate rudeness or "threats" from him.

kat1982

thank you all for your reassurance...i am blitzing (with three month old baby in tow!) and going over EVERYTHING to ensure i get that deposit back. it just irritated me that a jumped up teen in as you say a topman suit has the audacity to be so unbelievably rude! I shall be writing to the landlord once I leave, with my cash:)

kat1982

nb they are not registered with any ombudsman, but my deposit is with the DPS- PHEWish...