Letting Agent as useful as a chocolate hat

naturegirl_2

I live 400 miles away from my house which I have rented out with an agent for 3 years. I am in the process of selling said house and the tenant has just moved out, so I arrived to clear out the house and get the keys back from the agent. I insisted on checking the inventory before she left and found a whole list of goods missing from chairs, beds, cupboard, content of kitchen micro wave, crockery etc. I finally find out it was the previous tenant who had taken them (2 years previous) The agent had either not checked the list before the new tenant moved in or did not tell me what had happened. The previous tenant also owed two months rent, the agent paid one month but still owes me one month. She has the deposit still in the deposit scheme but said she's been trying for two years to get it but can't because the tenant has disappeared.
I know I should have got another agent but living so far away and having to find a new agent and tenant seemed alot to deal with.
So where do I stand with the agent? what do I do next? I called the police and he has advised to try and deal with it between myself and the agent before making an official left report.:mad:
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G_M

Your post is a bit confusing but you seem to have several issues:

1) Last tenant but one left owing 2 months rent. If the agent gave you one months rent, I fail to see how he owes you anything - it is the tenant that owes you, not the agent.

2) Last tenant but one took some items - if you can show the agent failed to do check-in and check out inventories (assuming you are paying them to do this) you could claim for this.

3) deposit. Which scheme? There should be a single claim process. If tenant fails to respond, deposit should be released.

4) police? !! No - this is at most a civil matter between you and the agent for breach of contract (agent failing to do what you've paid them for)

5) theft report? Against who? The agent or the tenant? Agent has not stolen anything and tenant has disappeared. Forget it!

paddedjohn

Wow a chocolate hat, why would you think that would be useless? just imagine having one of them, nice warm head on a winters eve and if you got lost on your way home from the pub and found yourself lost in the forest you would be able to survive by eating chocolate.
You could even say 'if that happens then il eat my hat' and actually mean it.

tbs624

naturegirl wrote: »

I live 400 miles away from my house which I have rented out with an agent for 3 years. I am in the process of selling said house and the tenant has just moved out, so I arrived to clear out the house and get the keys back from the agent. I insisted on checking the inventory before she left and found a whole list of goods missing from chairs, beds, cupboard, content of kitchen micro wave, crockery etc. I finally find out it was the previous tenant who had taken them (2 years previous) The agent had either not checked the list before the new tenant moved in or did not tell me what had happened. The previous tenant also owed two months rent, the agent paid one month but still owes me one month. She has the deposit still in the deposit scheme but said she's been trying for two years to get it but can't because the tenant has disappeared.

My bolding. You have taken your eye off the ball - I don't know any LLs who would be as slow to query matters such as this.

You say that the previous T left *two whole years* ago and yet there was rent outstanding and an unreturned/unsettled tenancy deposit? Why on earth did you not follow this up at the time? Why did you not ask to see the inventory check out papers from the previous tenancy? Why were you not on your LAs back until matters were resolved?

Anyone- absolutely anyone - can currently set themselves up in business trading as an LA - no quals, no training, no specific knowledge on LL & T matters.....

I know I should have got another agent but living so far away and having to find a new agent and tenant seemed alot to deal with.
So where do I stand with the agent? what do I do next? I called the police and he has advised to try and deal with it between myself and the agent before making an official left report.:mad:
.

As G_M says the issues between yourself and the LA are a civil matter. I think that you would be wasting your time trying to pursue the former T for nicking the property's contents.

However, the LA has failed to do their job if your contract with them stated that full completion of the inventory on entrance/exit was their responsibility.

Your comment on the rent arrears is strange - as another poster says, why would the LA pay you half of the arrears if none of it had been collected from the T?

Go onto the website for the relevant deposit scheme so that you can get an understanding of how they operate. Are you certain that the LA did actually scheme register the money and that it *is* languishing with the scheme ands not in your LAs personal coffers? ( in which case you do involve plod)

If this LA is signed up voluntarily to ARLA, NALs etc then trawl through the relevant code of practice and start some serious behind kicking.

naturegirl_2

When the new tenant moved in the LA signed the new agreement on my behalf and the inventory was the same as the previous one so I had no idea there was a problem until this week. I thought it had been taken by the tenant who has just moved out but it was the LA who mentioned that it could have been the previous one. So she never mentioned anything to me and was not going to either until I asked her to go round the house with me to check the inventory which is when I found all the items missing.
She paid one months rent I suppose as she felt responsible!!!
I emailed her on Tuesday evening to say if she gives me the deposit in lue of the owed rent and lost goods that would be the end of it, I'm now waiting to hear back from her.
Thanks for advice all.

BitterAndTwisted

Perhaps the one month's rent the agent paid over to you was the tenant's deposit? Do you know which scheme that deposit was allegedly registered with? These idiots were supposed to be acting on your behalf so you are entitled to know