Sick to the back teeth of Letting Agents

bhoy1976

Been really busy looking for a new flat for the last few weeks before I move out in October. Constantly let down by agents, who care very little for you.

I wish there were more private landlords out there who would take on good tenants like myself. My bills are always paid on time and I look after the property well.

Some of the properties I have seen have been abominable and nowhere near like the pictures suggest. It's misleading and a waste of my time and how they can price them as they do is staggering.

Its fair to say their isn't much in my area right now, but these people get away with murder. I feel I'm heading into Michael Douglas territory in Falling Down.

:mad:

BitterAndTwisted

The state of the properties and the rents asked for are the decision of the landlords concerned. I'm not particularly enamoured of agents but they're just the slaves and handmaidens of their employers, the landlords.

Before you view any more properties ask them outright whether the photos were taken recently or from before the very first tenant moved in ten years ago. I doubt you'll get a straight answer but it might be entertaining to put them on the spot

Jowo_2

People wanting to buy properties have the same problem regarding the difference between pictures of the property and how they find it during viewings. Pictures do tend to flatter and really the only way of seeing if a property is suitable after screening some out after reading the internet adverts/marketing literature is to actually turn up and have a closer look. No short cut there, I'm afraid.

bhoy1976

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

The state of the properties and the rents asked for are the decision of the landlords concerned. I'm not particularly enamoured of agents but they're just the slaves and handmaidens of their employers, the landlords.

Before you view any more properties ask them outright whether the photos were taken recently or from before the very first tenant moved in ten years ago. I doubt you'll get a straight answer but it might be entertaining to put them on the spot

Have you ever asked a letting agent a question before?

It's not like trying to get blood out of a stone, it's like talking to someone lacking grey matter.

As someone posted in another thread, you don't need qualifications, a brain, be part of a regulating body or even give a toss to be a letting agent in England.

BitterAndTwisted

True, but they do need to shift their backsides and find tenants or they make no money out of holding fees, loading the charges to tenants for referencing, tenant-finding fees or the commission on the collection of rents.

They do need you so I'd never feel that they automatically had the upper hand.

Have you looked for a private landlord on the landlords.org.uk website?

tbs624

Contact your local LL association for contact details of LLs who self manage their properties and see if the local Council holds a list of accredited private sector LLs.

Place your own "wanted" ads

Scour through letalife, spare room, vivastreet and so on.

Cut out the middleman

dizziblonde

They are getting worse around here at the moment, because there's so many people chasing so few decent rented properties -they're basically absolutely naff all help and you won't get an answer from them about anything, just a shrugged pair of shoulders and they watch the door for the next mug to walk in there.

Basically they're on a boom time round here at the moment and it's bringing all of their worst tendencies to the fore.