Letting Agent in Breach of Tenancy Agreement

squeak24

I recently had a rental property for six months.

During the tenancy the agent breached the Tenancy Agreement on several occasions.

On departure I sent a letter of complaint, amongst a number of complaints whilst in the property, to the Agents CEO requesting compensation for the breach of contracts.

They are currently looking into this. Due to there breach I am also out of pocket, so I sent an invoice requesting the value to be reimbursed.

They have advised the following:

"Finally, I must clarify that you have not entered into a contractual agreement with "AGENT NAME" and therefore by virtue of this fact, AGENT NAME cannot be held in breach of a contract that it was not party to. Your contractual arrangement was between you and LANDLORD. Should you wish to amend the invoices that you have previously provided so that they are addressed to LANDLORD, please let me know."


In my view it is the agent who breached the contract, not the landlord, so who would be responsible for the losses incurred.

Any help would be appreciated.

marliepanda

The agent acts for the landlord. He contracts them to act 'as his agent' so anything they do is legally his responsibility as they are employed by him.

He could if course them take the to court or whatever he chose if they acted outside his wishes, but it is correct that you have a contract with the landlord and he has a contract with the agent. You and the agent do not.

Ectophile

I think they are right. If you have no contract with the agent, then they cannot be in breach of it.

If your landlord employs someone who is in breach of your contract with the landlord, then the landlord is in breach of contract.