Complaining about a letting agent

Kepp

We want to lodge a complaint about a letting agent. (That my boyfriend rented through himself not me.)

Throughout the tenancy they have been worse than useless, never fixing faults that were supposed to be before he moved in and trying to take him to court for parking tickets that they owed for.

They have now messed us about with our deposit for over two weeks. Thankfully due to this new scheme and the fact they I pushed him to hold out on the issues that is now on it's way back to us.

Unfortunately that has involved hours of phone calls and disputes where the staff and owner himself have actually screamed down the phone at my boyfriend and actually hung up on him, they are nothing if not professional!

At this stage obviously our deposit is coming back to us and ourselves and everyone we know would obviously never rent through this LA again.

However, we would still like to lodge a complaint if possible about their behaviour to avoid other tenants (and landlords) getting caught up in this, is this possible?

Sorry for the long post and thanks

BitterAndTwisted

Some of the problems you complain of could be put at the landlord's door, not the agent's.

Spending hours on the phone when things should have been put in writing was unfortunate.

If they are members of ARLA then you could choose to complain to them but you need to be clear that you're not blaming the agents for omissions on the landlord's part..

tbs624

Ts should always try to keep disputes in writing so that there is a clear paper trail from the very start, and this can often divert the worst excesses from LLs/LAs ( the same applies from LL to T) It's particualrly important to have things in writing if there are repair/replacement issues at the very start of a tenancy.

If you really want to complain , you could write to the senior partner of the LA firm itself and also (as B&T says) to ARLA/NALs/NAEA etc if the LA is signed up to one or more, checking out the specific codes of conduct. Much depends on what you really hoped to achieve and how much further time you/your BF want to waste on the matter. I think that you are likely to get little more than " thanks for letting us know - we'll highlight your concerns with the member concerned"

Obviously, that won't particularly help other Ts or LLs to become aware of how you say this LA and LL have acted. You can always copy any such letter from you to the local Council's Private Sector Rentals Officer, as they like to be aware of unpleasant LAs/LLs on their patch, but you may just have to decide to let it go and put the whole thing down to one of life's unpleasant experiences