Dealing directly with landlord?

sophieH

Hi all,

Random query - my partner and I rent a property which I have lived in for 3 years now (he's lived in it with me for around 1.5 years).

We deal with all property matters through our managing agent, and have no direct contact with our landlords, never have - however the agents are absolutely rubbish and I feel like both we and the landlord are likely being given a bad deal.

From our side the fees are high (£170 at the beginning of each year when we renew the contract, £70 for adding a new person to the tenancy agreement, and £130-odd for referencing on top of that - so for example when my OH moved in it cost us over £300 in 'admin' fees). I understand that every agent charges fees but these are higher than I've ever had to pay in the past. Plus they come round and inspect the house every 3 months and take photographs of every room (this is a matter of standard policy, we always keep the house clean and tidy so it's not just us!).

From the landlord's side of things (and ours), the agents have been rubbish at performing repairs and generally don't seem to do much to earn their money - as an example, we have a chandelier style light in our dining room; it randomly fell out one day and was hanging around 3ft from the floor by the wire - when OH came home from work and looked at it, he saw that the fitting was being held in by two tiny nails into a piece of wood in the ceiling which had since rotted away.

We called the agents several times and it took them three weeks to come round and do anything about it - in which time OH had removed it himself as obviously having a light fitting floating in the middle of the room and wires hanging everywhere isn't ideal. When they did eventually come round all they did was move it half an inch across the ceiling and use another 2 nails to pin it into the same bit of rotten wood - so we're waiting for it to fall out again.

Anyway - our agents got in contact the other day to say that our landlord would like to update our bathroom, and I'm wondering - if the landlords themselves come around to do the work or oversee it at any point and we are able to meet them and have a chat, what would the etiquette be in suggesting that we let the house directly from them when possible?

Obviously I'm assuming that they are tied into using the agents for a certain amount of time and they may indeed prefer to use the agents, however if they do feel the same as us (ie, they are paying a lot for a not-particularly-good service), it could be beneficial. Or am I just being ridiculous? I understand that the landlord does benefit from having an agent - they don't have to find new tenants themselves, have credit checks etc performed for them, and have extra security. We are planning on living in the property for several more years whilst we save for a deposit, but obviously they only have our word to show for that right now.

Any thoughts?

G_M

Why not speak to your landlord?

Do you know where he is/lives? UK or abroad?

What address is provided to you for "serving of notices" on the LL? It may be c/o the agent, but may not.

You can write to your agent and request the LL's address. They have 21 days to provide it ( Landlord & Tenant Act 1985 section 1)

You can pay £3 to the Land Registry here to get the owner' name/address.

As for your annual fees, why pay them? Read

Ending/Renewing an AST (what happens when the Fixed Term ends?)(What is a Periodic Tenancy?)(How can a LL remove a tenant?)(How can a tenant end a tenancy?)

sophieH

Thanks G_M - in answer to those questions...

Unfortunately all our correspondence/notices etc is c/o the agents I believe, I think I checked a while ago when I was wondering this same thing. I'll double check though. No idea where the landlord lives - again I don't think I have any other info than a name, but I'll check. Good idea to check the Land Registry too!

Unfortunately with the last point we've sort of tried that - we weren't sure what to do at the end of last year so when the contract ended at the end of December we went onto a periodic rolling tenancy whilst we looked at our options (moving a few days before Christmas would have been ridiculous anyway if we had decided to move) but they have now asked us to either sign for another year or leave, essentially, so we are staying. We love the house and rent-wise it is a good deal for the size and where we are so we're happy to stay there, just wish the agents were a bit less rubbish! They're always incredibly rude too which I think has soured my views on them too.

G_M

sophieH wrote: »

Thanks G_M - in answer to those questions...
....... but they have now asked us to either sign for another year or leave,........

It's a bit of a gamble, but do you really think they would evict you if you stayed on a periodic tenancy? It is certainly not in the landlord's interests (a gap of 1-2 months with no rent, cost of finding new tenant, uncertainty whether new tenant will be reliable), but if he's delegated ALL decisions to the agents, they just might. Another reason to speak to the LL.

Write and ask for his address.

fishpond

Wot he said.