Agency seemingly refusing to give out landlords address

Soniclord

Tried the head office route twice, they really can't do anything 'apparentlty' as Belvoir offices are ALL franchises so they have little to no clout when it comes to dealing with them as they are all independently owned, which is why the owners think they can do and say/treat tenants how they like, as if they're above the law.

Unfortunately for them they're not.

rentergirl

tbs624 wrote: »

Depending on a T's specific circumstances it can also be worth a TRO taking a look at the Protection From Eviction Act 1977:

s7 Service of Notices

(1)If for the purpose of any proceedings (whether civil or criminal) brought or intended to be brought under this Act, any person serves upon—

(a)any agent of the landlord named as such in the rent book or other similar document, or
(b)the person who receives the rent of the dwelling,

a notice in writing requiring the agent or other person to disclose to him the full name and place of abode or place of business of the landlord, that agent or other person shall forthwith comply with the notice.

(2)If any such agent or other person as is referred to in subsection (1) above fails or refuses forthwith to comply with a notice served on him under that subsection, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding [F17level 4 on the standard scale], unless he shows to the satisfaction of the court that he did not know, and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained, such of the facts required by the notice to be disclosed as were not disclosed by him.

Excellent reminder about this useful and often forgotten Act. The agent's must give the landlord's address: simple as...
But they won't. Also simple as...
Always a quandry: putting them on council's radar is also good.

tbs624

OP - I'd suggest that you remove the LA name from your posts but you may like to know that their own blurb states:

" the actions and omissions of the Franchisees may damage the goodwill and reputation of the xxxxxxx brand, which is why the head office function monitors the performance of the Franchisees"

Being made aware by a T client that a franchisee appear to be acting outside the provisions of the law and then not taking it up with the franchisee, as part of that monitoring process, makes the Head Office lot look pretty poor.

IMO their lack of action effectively means that they appear to condone that sort of behaviour from their franchisees. How can what appears to be ignoring the "actions and omissions" of their franchisees be justifiable?

Soniclord

Exactly my thoughts TBS.

Do you still think I should remove the LA's name from my posts as I don't really have anything to hide.

If you think it's a good idea then I'll do it but I don't have anything to hide.

jc808

Hmmm... What pressuregauge is on this boiler?
Because with closed CH systems, the pressure is usually 1.5 bar... are you sure this pressuregauge is not for the CH only? If so, whacking it up to 3 could cause all sorts of problems!!!!!!!

Hurdler

well add Gascoigne Pees to the list of incompetant managing agents.
My tenants complained to me in writing about very similar issues - managing agents had NO callout number for a fully managed service (I was totally unaware of this, having been assured that their fully managed service included call-out contacts).
I am having the devils own job getting shot of them now... I am extremely lucky - I have had great tenants and I have managed to find agents that actually are LOCAL to my property (as opposed to being the other side of the county ... ALSO news to me!)...

I wish you well... nightmare landlords are bad and yes they exist out there (as to nightmare tenants)... but nightmare managing agents seem to be able to get off scott free....

red_devil

defintely try and write to the owner of the house. I would, its nothing to do with the agency if you want to write direct.

Soniclord

jc808 wrote: »

Hmmm... What pressuregauge is on this boiler?
Because with closed CH systems, the pressure is usually 1.5 bar... are you sure this pressuregauge is not for the CH only? If so, whacking it up to 3 could cause all sorts of problems!!!!!!!

This one http://www.euroboilerparts.co.uk/pg160-ferroli-pressure-gauge-39806330-805190-374-p.asp and it should have been set at 1.5 bar which apparently the landlord 'did' do the day or 2 before we moved in, obviously he set it higher and didn't realise!?

We most definitely didn't touch it, we simply went to turn it on and it had a fault code flashing on it.

And I agree it being on 3 did and could cause all sorts of problems..

franklee

I would set the situation out in writing with a diary:

27th January Gas safety check carried out.

ww February Landlord visited the property and "adjusted the boiler pressure to 1.5 bar".

xx February You moved in noticed an error code flashing on the boiler, followed the user guide and as directed from that error code reported the fault to Belvoir who called out an engineer.

etc ... to

zz February to present day Boiler intermittently flashing error code yyy for which the manual says blah blah so that's what's you've been doing.

I'd add a comment that you are concerned as to why the landlord needed to adjust the boiler only xx days after the gas safety check.

Send it to the agent, keeping a copy. You could even hand deliver and ask for a receipt. That should cover your backside for the inevitable argument over your deposit return.

I'd write a separate letter dealing with the landlord's address, send it to the most senior person at your agent's branch by name, copy the agent's head office, council TRO, any body the agent is a member of like ARLA etc. and your MP Explain their lack of providing address after xx days etc. and request it again.

Dig up the prescribed information that you were given when your deposit was protected and see if there are any landlord's details on that. Check what you were given against the required prescribed information and if it falls short remember that for future use.

As the land registry lists the landlord address at the rental I'd put a blank sheet of paper in an envelope address it to the landlord at your address and post in the snail mail. See if it lands on your door mat. If not you could write the the landlord that way hoping postal redirection is in place. This is more likely if you don't get letters addressed to the landlord. OTOH if you get letters for the landlord don't hand them in as that allows him to operate from your address, I'd mark them no longer living at this address and pop them back in the post.

Soniclord

Excellent advice.

Thanks franklee.

Just to add as well, so far I've spoken to Shelter who confirmed everything I thought re: the boiler being the landlord/agents responsibility to fix it regardless of whether 'we' (me and my other half) did or did not do anything to it.

They also confirmed that the agent cannot refuse to give me the landlords actual address.

I've also spoken to my local councils Tenancy Relations Officer, and NALS who are writing to the agent on my behalf to tell them to give us the landlords address.

And the reason I'm taking this so far is because of the way the idiot who works at Belvoir spoke to my other half saying he was considering getting us out at his own expense, that really REALLY made me angry (that's an understatement) as I can't use MUCH stronger language on here