Bad experience with the world's worst letting agents!

cupcake32

Hi, I could do with some advice please.
My husband and I have rented houses for the past 8 years. We have always been (we feel) exemplary tenants, paying our rent and bills on time, causing no social disturbance and leaving the property in 100% tip-top condition. I have had a landlady become quite weepy on me and thank me for turning her run-down house in to a home. And a letting agent congratulate me and tell me I should be a professional cleaner. Anyway...

Things were great until we came across our current agent. We took on a house that we had some misgivings about (in terms of condition) but thought as a money saving exercise it would be a good move for a year or two. On moving in we found a myriad of problems. Apart from the place being dirty there were leaks under sinks, taps that leaked water constantly from the base of the faucet, broken guttering, blocked drains, interior mould on walls, an oven that was causing condensation to drip down the insides of the kitchen cupboard doors (a broken seal apparently) and worst of all a boiler that did not give us any hot water. We reported these things and the landlord came himself and bodged up the guttering, replaced the oven etc. But we heard nothing about the boiler. I rang the agent a week later and again, nothing happened. This went on for 7 months. In the end we asked to terminate our 12 month contract but were told this was not possible.
Yesterday evening I got an unexpected visitor... our landlady. She wanted to know why we were not happy. I told her everything that had happened and she said that the agents had never told her or her husband that we had no hot water or they would have sorted it out immediately. She was very nice and apologised profusely, before saying she would go and see the agents in the morning and sort the whole mess out. She seemed in disbelief that they had treated us so badly and kept her out of the loop all along.
Well, she returned tonight and refused to come inside. She was polite again, but told me that whatever had happened between us and the agents was our business but we complain too much and she wants us out in 6 weeks. I am calling a meeting with the director of the letting agents on Monday morning but I am pretty sure they've done a number on us and told her that we are troublemakers or something along those lines.
How do I handle this? Is there an Ombudsman? How can we keep our reputation as decent tenants or will they give us bad references and ruin our chances of getting anywhere else?
Thank you in advance! x

budgetdiyer

Ignoring most of your points... you asked to leave early and were initially refused permission, now they are letting you go early and your not happy?

Thrugelmir

Bad experience with the world's worst letting agents!

Sounds more like a two faced landlady. Who changed her attitude after speaking to her husband.

No good business person would terminate tenants who pay their rent on time.

Fire_Fox

Ignore the verbal notice that won't stand up in court and certainly not of you are within the fixed term, your landlady sounds lacking in knowledge. Write to your landlady using the address at which to service notices on your tenancy agreement and formally report all the problems with the property, if no result then involve Environmental Health at the local council.

Do not have a meeting with the letting sgents, you are contracted to the landlord NOT the agents, the landlady is contracted to the agents and she is responsible for their action.