Letting agent

follyfoot

I am about to rent my flat for the first time via a letting agent. can someone please tell me what service they expect from a letting agent eg for letting only? would you expect the agent to write the tenancy agreement even if the landlord is holding the deposit?

silvercar

yes, mine did.

follyfoot

mine is refusing to because i said i will hold onto the deposit and register it in an insurance based scheme. she has now found tenants and whenever i ask her about utilities and the tenants responsibility she starts harping on about how all this is covered in her tenancy agreement which is very comprehensive. she said it is up to me to make sure my agreement covers the housing act

scrummy_mummy_2

As the Landlord, you can only hold the deposit if you register it under the new Tenancy Deposit Scheme run by the NLA and Hamilton Fraser. For details see www.mydeposits.co.uk
You will need to join, there is a fee, and then pay per deposit registered.
If you do not wish to hold the deposit, you can submit it to a different scheme called TDS (Tenancy Deposit Scheme) www.depositprotection.com which I believe is free.

Before you decide to go let only...make sure you know what you are talking about otherwise you can mess things up for yourself and your tenants.
Join the NLA and bone up on the legislation you will have to comply with quickly.
http://www.landlords.org.uk/join.asp?nl

How can you expect to effectively manage your property on your own if you do not clearly already know what to expect from a letting agent on a let only basis?

follyfoot

scrummy_mummy wrote: »

As the Landlord, you can only hold the deposit if you register it under the new Tenancy Deposit Scheme run by the NLA and Hamilton Fraser. For details see www.mydeposits.co.uk
You will need to join, there is a fee, and then pay per deposit registered.
If you do not wish to hold the deposit, you can submit it to a different scheme called TDS (Tenancy Deposit Scheme) www.depositprotection.com which I believe is free.

Before you decide to go let only...make sure you know what you are talking about otherwise you can mess things up for yourself and your tenants.
Join the NLA and bone up on the legislation you will have to comply with quickly.
http://www.landlords.org.uk/join.asp?nl

How can you expect to effectively manage your property on your own if you do not clearly already know what to expect from a letting agent on a let only basis?

I have registered at Mydeposit.co.uk. I have joined the NLA. My letting agent was going to provide a tenancy agreement until i told her i had registered with the Mydeposit.co.uk scheme and would protect the tenants deposit and then she said she could not provide an agreement since she was not controlling the deposit.

scrummy_mummy_2

follyfoot wrote: »

mine is refusing to because i said i will hold onto the deposit and register it in an insurance based scheme. she has now found tenants and whenever i ask her about utilities and the tenants responsibility she starts harping on about how all this is covered in her tenancy agreement which is very comprehensive. she said it is up to me to make sure my agreement covers the housing act

I would expect the Agreement to be covered under a let only arrangement, together with the initial advertising of the property, viewings, refs, and credit checks. I would anticipate that the Agent would then collect the first month's rent and the deposit on your behalf.
I would expect that the inventory and the checks to validate the legal requirements/certifications that need to be done, together with future rental collections, reparations, check in, check out and all other management reponsibilitites would be the L/L's responsibility....however...this will vary agent to agent depending upon their terms of business and what they offer.
it may be that your agent won't give you her copy of her Tenancy agreement under her terms of business for a let only agreement.

scrummy_mummy_2

follyfoot wrote: »

I have registered at Mydeposit.co.uk. I have joined the NLA. My letting agent was going to provide a tenancy agreement until i told her i had registered with the Mydeposit.co.uk scheme and would protect the tenants deposit and then she said she could not provide an agreement since she was not controlling the deposit.

If you've joined the NLA you can download a copy of a Tenancy Agreement from their forms section on the website....stuff the agent, you can get what you need from the NLA, you don't need her agreement at all!

Agents take a cut from most activities assocaited with renting and she was probably hoping to cream off a bit of income with the deposit...refusing to give you her agreement is probably because there is nothing in it (financially) for her....nothing more sinister than that.
By joining the NLA you have all you need.....any questions ring their helpline, they are fabulously helpful.

follyfoot

i sent her a copy of the NLA agreement and she said her was more comprehensive.

wecanhelpu

Take no notice of her.

She's a chancer.

Do what scrummymummy says

scrummy_mummy_2

If you want 'suitable' use the NLA Agreement...it covers all the legal bases and will do...you can always edit it to put specific clauses in it if you want/need to.
If you want 'comprehensive' try this link
http://www.painsmith.co.uk/
Marveen Smith is the solicitor for the National Association of Estate Agents...her Agreement is comprehensive (I use it!) and it is 23 pages long.
I paid about £80 (plus VAT) 7 years ago...once you have bought it, you just update it as necesaary (recently I had to update mine to include details for the new Tenancy Depsoit Schemes), but as a one off purchase (tax deductible!) I haven't regretted it.

thelawnet

scrummy_mummy wrote: »

If you want 'suitable' use the NLA Agreement...it covers all the legal bases and will do...you can always edit it to put specific clauses in it if you want/need to.
If you want 'comprehensive' try this link
http://www.painsmith.co.uk/
Marveen Smith is the solicitor for the National Association of Estate Agents...her Agreement is comprehensive (I use it!) and it is 23 pages long.
I paid about £80 (plus VAT) 7 years ago...once you have bought it, you just update it as necesaary (recently I had to update mine to include details for the new Tenancy Depsoit Schemes), but as a one off purchase (tax deductible!) I haven't regretted it.

Longer is very unlikely to mean better.

In fact, it is likely to be worse.

Given a 23-page tenancy agreement it

(a) almost certainly contains numerous unfair clauses under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations, because it's hard to see how you could have 23 pages of fair and reasonable clauses and
(b) is HIGHLY unlikely to be understandable by the tenant, and as a result it would be impossible to prove in court that the tenant understood all the implications of a 23-page document (presumably couched in legalese, which is prohibited under s7(1) of Unfair Terms regs) and as such it would be much harder to enforce any of your rights under the contract.

It's quite possible PainSmith have updated the contract in the last 7 years; I suspect it might well be worth your while to fork out another £80, especially if the contract has actually been reviewed by OFT.