Guarantor agreement

starburst123

Pixie5740 wrote: »

If you can't get guarantee agreement struck out at least see if you can get the LA fees for the arrears removed as they seem really high and I think you can only incur financial penalties and fees for arrears if it's written into the TA. For example, my TA says that if my rent is late I'll be charged X% + BoE base rate in interest.

As does ours for our house - but this one just refers to an appendix no-one has ever seen and although the interest is referred to in this it's never been charged or shown as interest - their initial charge each time is £340 + court fees no matter how much is owed.

starburst123

An update on this - any thoughts are welcome as we are not sure what to do next. After three emails to the agent - the first requesting the specific breakdown of fees referred to in the tenancy agreement which was never provided, the second following this up as no response was received, and the third making a formal complaint about not having been sent this and seperately also requesting a statement of the account, a response was finally sent, with only the statement, and a summary that £x amount is solicitors costs and £x amount court fees - still no appendix as requested.

The total amount on the statement now consists of £900 rent outstandiing as of today, and £1150 in fees. This sticks massively in the throat - they have charged twice for the "solicitors costs" yet the county court claim form states no solicitor instructed, as well as twice for the court costs (at least there is physical evidence of this in the form of the claims themselves).

Surely this is not a reasonable amount - the action they took to recover just over £700 of rent resulted in a 150% increase in the amount owed, and still no eviction paperwork issued to the tenant, so the liability is open ended and extortionate...

The acknowledgement of service was been sent back stating only part of the debt is acknowledged (the actual rent arrears, not the fees as we were still waiting for their documentation which doesn't appear to exist!) so we have a further two weeks to figure out what to do.

Please help if you can...

dimbo61

This might help


https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lettings-agents-and-property-managers-redress-schemes


http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/private_renting/problems_with_renting/letting_agent_redress_schemes

Marktheshark

I only see space for two signatures ?
Have you cropped the third off /
A deed has your signature, a signature of a representative of the firm and a witness.
The witness is to sign to say they have seen both parties sign the deed.

starburst123

dimbo61 wrote: »

This might help


https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lettings-agents-and-property-managers-redress-schemes


http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/private_renting/problems_with_renting/letting_agent_redress_schemes

Thanks dimbo61 - have checked and they are a member of one, but is the correct course of action to pay the fees and challenge it after (not actually sure where the money would come from tbh), or tell them we're not paying while we await a decision

Marktheshark wrote: »

I only see space for two signatures ?
Have you cropped the third off /
A deed has your signature, a signature of a representative of the firm and a witness.
The witness is to sign to say they have seen both parties sign the deed.

Marktheshark - the bottom signature is that of the agent. But the document literally makes no mention of the word deed anywhere so how is an average person supposed to know what should constitute a deed? It actually terms itself a contract on the front page.

[Deleted User]

With all these costs/fees, it might be time to go to a solicitor. Or the CAB (although I'm afraid I don't fully trust the CAB).

The_Druid

If the letting agency is demanding more than twice the rent every time the tenant pays a little late...

...why don't YOU pay the rent (on time) and then collect the money from the tenant yourself?

I realise that this would not be an ideal situation, but at least this way you would not be repeatedly overpaying by huge amounts. It's bad enough that you are having to cover someone else's rent - it's shocking that you are also having to pay massive admin. fees and legal costs.

Marktheshark

I would pay a solicitor specialised in contracts to look at this.
I think they might agree it is not a valid deed.
However even a guarantor deed is not an open payment account and the mitigation of loss is still a valid defence.
They can evict the tenant for non payment as soon as legally possible and therefore mitigate any loss and a judge would require them to explain what steps they had done to mitigate any loss.
The method of a loss is separate to who pays the loss and English law is based upon the caveat that one must do all possible to mitigate that loss.
Who pays is a seperate issue covered by the deed.

jjlandlord

We know it is not a deed.

starburst123

deannatrois wrote: »

With all these costs/fees, it might be time to go to a solicitor. Or the CAB (although I'm afraid I don't fully trust the CAB).

We tried the CAB already, they were not very knowledgeable unfortunately, shelter today have also not proved useful unfortuately and referred us back to CAB as there isn't a shelter centre nearby

The_Druid wrote: »

If the letting agency is demanding more than twice the rent every time the tenant pays a little late...

...why don't YOU pay the rent (on time) and then collect the money from the tenant yourself?

I realise that this would not be an ideal situation, but at least this way you would not be repeatedly overpaying by huge amounts. It's bad enough that you are having to cover someone else's rent - it's shocking that you are also having to pay massive admin. fees and legal costs.

We would do this if we knew she had the money to pay the rent - however she doesn't have enough coming in. Basically she will take the "wait until evicted" route in the hope of getting council help, yet the agency will not need to evict all the while they have a guarantor to chase. He is stuck in the middle and basically being milked left right and centre it seems. We are no longer on speaking terms with her over this.