Advice required - Change in terms to rented property

herghost

I have been renting a house since June last year, today I received an email from the agency informing me that from the 1st of March the landlord will be taking over the running of the property.

How does this affect me legally? It is a managed property and the agency has done a very good job of getting someone out to us whenever we have had a problem.

When I signed the contract there were a lot of agency fees, am I entitled to a refund on any of these?

What happens if the Landlord decides to increase the rent, is he allowed to do this before my initial contact expires? Are the agency breaching there contract?

SerialRenter

herghost wrote: »

How does this affect me legally? It is a managed property and the agency has done a very good job of getting someone out to us whenever we have had a problem.

It just changes your point of contact. The letting agent would have likely asked the landlord before actioning maintenance requests, so if they approved them all previously, i'd imagine this trend will continue.

herghost wrote: »

When I signed the contract there were a lot of agency fees, am I entitled to a refund on any of these?

Nope. You paid them a one off fee for referencing/check in etc, you didn't pay anything towards a continuing service so there is no money to reclaim.

herghost wrote: »

What happens if the Landlord decides to increase the rent, is he allowed to do this before my initial contact expires? Are the agency breaching there contract?

You're bound by the same tenancy agreement as before, if you're within the fixed term the landlord cannot raise the rent or evict you without your agreement. There is no breach of contract because you never had a contract with the letting agent, it was always with the landlord.


Basically, very little has changed, you now just have to email/phone/write the landlord if there's a problem rather than email/phone/write the letting agent.
The account to pay your rent too might also change, if the letting agent previously handled the money side of things. Continue paying the same pay unless the landlord instructs points you to a different account.

herghost

Thanks SerialRenter, most helpful :-)

Pixie5740

As SerialRenter says, very little will change as far as you're concerned. Your contract has always been with the LL not the LA.


Your LL should be in contact with you to provide new bank details to pay your rent to and if the address for the serving of notices given in your TA is currently c/o the LA, then your LL should also provide you with a new address for serving notices to.