surrender of tenancy - reasonable terms?

jjlandlord

tumbledowngirl wrote: »

So actually there's no complication, but even something as simple as "should I give the tenant whatever part of the rent that is left over when a new tenancy is signed" seems to be a grey area and not agreed universally here.

I have dug around the internet and the mitigating losses or not issue is another grey area..

Neither are grey areas.

tumbledowngirl

jjlandlord wrote: »

Neither are grey areas.

So I can actually let the AST run on, stop looking for new tenants and if neccesary take the tenant to court for, let's assume, 5 months unpaid rent and no judge is going to find against me???

Pixie5740

You can let the AST runs as it is, then if/when the rent is in arrears by two months you can issue a section 8 notice.

tumbledowngirl

Well, now things have all got messy.

I have found out from the agents dealing with the property the tenants moved into that they (the agent) were in discussion with our agent throughout the referencing process and our agent verbally confirmed that the tenants were being released from their agreement.

The version of events our agent gave us was that he had been asked for a reference and refused it, explaining that the tenants were still in a fixed term agreement until the end of July.

So, what recourse do we have against an agent who released a tenant from an agreement when we had previously explicitly said no, and who has lied to us that he did so??

DRP

have you confronted your agent?

tumbledowngirl

DRP wrote: »

have you confronted your agent?

No, in part because he's out of the office until next week - but also because I'm trying to get the full story from both the referencing department of the other agency and they are going to contact the tenants.

The story gets more eyebrow raising with every turn.

I'll try to be brief -

The tenants agreed to the new property, believing they were in a 6 month AST. When the agency asked our LA for references, our LA refused on the basis that the tenants were tied into to the last 6 months of a 12 month AST. When this was argued by the tenants, it came to light that there were 2 agreements that had apparently been signed - one for 6 months and one for 12 months. Neither were entirely lawful, since the pages that had been signed had no details on as to what the signatures were agreeing to. Also, the signatures on both agreements are apparently identical - possibly suggesting that a 6 month agreement was signed and when the LA realised the mistake, he simply photocopied the signature page and added it to the unsigned 12 month agreement.

He then agreed to release the tenant, when the tenant argued that they never asked for or wanted a 12 month agreement (we were told they did), because the LA said that the property would re-let straight away. The tenant then agreed to pay the rent until the end of February.

So - this explains why the LA told us he would pretend he had a viewing in order to get access to the property; he knew the tenant wouldn't have a problem with it AND he knew it was a way of getting the property back on Rightmove and start the re-let process before we'd had time to think about it.
It also explains why he tried to talk about mitigating losses - he knew that if we asserted our right to let the AST run to term, he wouldn't get any more rent out of the tenant (who'd had a surrender agreed already) and we'd find out what had happened.

I can't actually believe the lengths he's gone to to cover up his mistakes.

What should we do know, with regards to reporting the agent to ARLA etc?

franklee

First step is to make a complaint in writing to the agent. They should then deal with it, if that's not done to your satisfaction ask the agent in writing what their complaints procedure is. Follow that procedure - again all in writing. If still not satisfied report the agent to every body they are a member of. I don't think you can go to that last step without having exhausted the agent's complaints procedure first. Nowt to stop you ringing ARLA etc to ask if you want that confirmed.

Meanwhile check directly for yourself that your tenant's deposit is protected. Then change agent to get the property re-let. Don't forget to look at the terms you signed with the agent to see what notice you need to give them etc.

If you're not confident doing stuff on your own you could join a landlord's association and they should have loads of information.

tumbledowngirl

franklee wrote: »

First step is to make a complaint in writing to the agent. They should then deal with it, if that's not done to your satisfaction ask the agent in writing what their complaints procedure is. Follow that procedure - again all in writing. If still not satisfied report the agent to every body they are a member of. I don't think you can go to that last step without having exhausted the agent's complaints procedure first. Nowt to stop you ringing ARLA etc to ask if you want that confirmed.

Meanwhile check directly for yourself that your tenant's deposit is protected. Then change agent to get the property re-let. Don't forget to look at the terms you signed with the agent to see what notice you need to give them etc.

If you're not confident doing stuff on your own you could join a landlord's association and they should have loads of information.

Thank you for your advice.
At least now it appears the tenants aren't to blame for this and we can (hopefully) sort out the surrender and getting possession of the house very easily. In actual fact, the agent of their new property is going to contact them to see if there are any other inconsistencies that may have occurred during the tenancy (maybe the rent was never actually paid late by them, but simply held by the agents? Also we have found out that we have paid for repairs that have never actually been completed, and perhaps weren't even requested by the tenant.)

I will spend the weekend getting this all down in writing so that we can contact our agent on Monday.

tumbledowngirl

I forgot to say in my last post -

I can't lay my finger on our copy of the tenancy agreement at the moment, but we were told the deposit would be held in a insurance backed account. How do I check whether it was actually ever protected?

franklee

tumbledowngirl wrote: »

we were told the deposit would be held in a insurance backed account. How do I check whether it was actually ever protected?

Ring the deposit scheme directly and ask them. Do not rely on your letting agent to tell you it was really done. If you don't know which scheme ring them all there are only about four. A quick google search should turn them up.