What is wrong with letting agents?

glimmerofhope

My agents ignored my no pets/children. Not entirely unreasonable for a small 1st floor maisonette, they allowed both and denied it even when I witnessed it myself.

We are trying to buy at present as renting is a rip off, fees to renew, fees for giving a reference, fees to check out...it goes on

Rosetinted

gazapc wrote: »

I CANNOT wait to get rid of letting agents and buy my own place.

I'm afraid estate agents aren't any better. Over the course of seven months of trying to buy, I must've called about at least 50 properties, half of which had 'just been sold' yet were still listed on RightMove weeks later.

Just one counterpoint to the much-deserved bile being slung at letting agents: there are a few decent ones out there. My last rental property was managed by the usual slack-jawed, useless prats who screwed up everything they touched. The landlord, despite complaining endlessly about how crap they were, carried on using them once I left. I suspect they were cheap.

My current rental is managed by a fantastic, small, local company. I suspect they aren't cheap, but everyone's getting a brilliant service out of them. You get what you pay for, so I do partially blame landlords for hiring idiots to manage their properties. There's plenty of info out there to let you know who's bad, as long as you bother to look for it.

pioneer31

I'm surprised at their general idleness even before we get to the fees/ripoffs.


I'm forever having to chase THEM for viewings

KayTM

We've had bad experiences of lettings agents from both sides. As landlords paying for their service when we had to rent out our home because of a job move, they allowed 12 people and two dogs to live in our little house. And then claimed that they didn't know it had been furnished - even though they did the inventory! Unbelievable.

And now we're currently in temporary rented accommodation as a short-term (one year plan), these other letting agents haven't been much better. Among other things, they give keys to our home (OK it's rented but we still have a contract) without even telling us! Thus, it shouldn't be a surprise if you go downstairs in your jammies to make breakfast and find a stranger in your home. Their excuse? That's the way they've always done it and it's convenient for their tradesmen.

I'm not sure if I could ever trust a lettings agent again.

AlexMac

Dougla Adams had the right idea in his sci-fi classic "Hitchikers guide toi the galaxy' The inhabitants of a planet called, I think, Golgafrincha invented tales of impending doom to rid themselves of an entire useless third of their population. They planned to build three Ark space-ships. Into the A ship would go all the leaders, scientists and other high achievers. The C ship would contain all the people who made things and did things, and the B ark would hold everyone else, such as hairdressers and estate agents. They sent the B ship off first, the estate agents were surprised when no-one followed and assumed that Golgafrincha had exploded. In fact, the other two-thirds of the population stayed on the planet and lived full, rich and happy lives... without the estate and lettings agents...

Well, you can fantasize, can't you?

Physics

Telephone cleaners were amongst those they sent.

It was considered a grand success.

Several years later, the population of the home planet was wiped out by a disease caught from a dirty telephone.

mgarl10024

As a landlord who lives near the let out property, I found that having the agency in the middle when trying to resolve maintenance issues just added another layer of obfuscation, and didn't really add anything to the process.

Though, I keep using my agent for finding tenants.
I think I stick with them for fear of getting something wrong on the assumption that they know what they are doing and have all the paperwork ready. For example, if you get something minor wrong on a S21 it could cost you months in wasted time.
I imagine that if I joined a good Landlord Association instead that I'd get all the paperwork and support - I'm just not feeling quite that brave yet!

I am seriously considering doing my own viewings though. I recently met in the property with a prospective tenant who had recently viewed through the agent, and some of questions he asked me revealed the agent's lack of knowledge specifically about the property. The thing is that the property attracted 16 viewings on its first week, and even batching them that sounds like a big commitment...