Access to a file held by letting agent

PRe5

Hello all, I am hoping that somebody may be able offer some advice on obtaining information held on a letting agents file.

A bit of background info first.

We have been tenants at our rental home for close to 2 years with the initial contracts issued by Your Move along with information relating to the extension of. Anything else has been dealt with directly by our landlord. A number of weeks ago, the parasitic letting agent got in touch to advise that the contract renewal is due soon, they want a large admin fee for the privilege and the rent is going up. We queried the rent increase, especially in times of low mortgage & interest rates, and were told it's to fall in line with the rest of the market. At no point did we refuse to accept it and were happy to go along with it; I must make that clear.

We then contacted our landlord and asked if we could just extend the tenancy directly with her to avoid the fee. She agreed and categorically stated that she's happy for us to remain as her tenants.

Fast forward a few weeks & Your Move have written to us advising that the landlord requires repossession and has served notice!

I am under the suspicion that Your Move have advised that if were evicted then they can re-market the home & get more rent or forced our landlord into a corner & threatened a large exit fee if she breaks the terms of the contract with them and deals directly with us in respect of the extension. Seems our landlord has gone along with this. It's seems that Your Move are employing some quite underhand tactics.

I now need to try & find out what's been going on in the background and to try and prove my suspicions. My 2 requests for the contents of the file have been ignored and I'd like to know what I can do to obtain this information. Surely, as co-signee of the contract between Your Move & our landlord, I am entitled to request and receive this information? Is anybody able to advise as to how I may obtain this information?

Thanks in advance.

Pixie5740

You have no contract with Your Move. Your contract is with the landlord. Your landlord has a contract with Your Move though.

If your landlord wants to increase the rent in-line with market rents there is nothing stopping you from accepting/negotiating a rent increase but instead of paying a renewal fee for a new fixed term, having a periodic tenancy instead.

See Ending/renewing an AST for more information.

Boatdweller

Your contract is with the landlord. The landlord's contract with your agent has nothing to do with you. Agent's fees to both LL and T should be available on their website so you can find out fee's. If LL has realised they can get more for the property there is nothing to stop them doing so.

Cakeguts

If you want to stay there ask the landlord for a periodic tenancy so that you don't have to sign a new tenancy agreement and at the same time ask what the rent increase is likely to be.

Marktheshark

Speak with the landlord and see if you can pay them directly on a periodic tenancy.
If they agree, Ignore the agent and just keep paying the rent.

If the landlord agrees with the agents, then they are making a big mistake, having a good paying tenant is worth the extra they might get and greed is always the downfall of any landlord.

lewishardwick

Unless they are BTL mortgage free, surely the LL stands to lose around 6 weeks in fees plus any void periods. That would mousey likely eat up any rent increase first the first year...

TeaLeaf

You could try making a Subject Access request under the Data Protection Act. That only relates to information they have about you, rather than negotiations between your landlord and them, and they can charge you £10 for it.

They might refuse, probably under commercial confidentiality or some such reason, but they do have to respond to you giving their reason for refusal. If they do comply, they must do so within 40 days but I doubt you'd get much from them you didn't already know.

It depends how much you want to irritate them.

kinger101

Your not entitled to see communications between the agent and LL unless they relate directly to you. In any event, it's likely to have been a verbal communication.

You say "Fast forward a few weeks & Your Move have written to us advising that the landlord requires repossession and has served notice!"

What exactly did the "notice" say?

You might want to contact the landlord again (G_M will suggest cake is involved) and find out a mutually convenient arrangement.

fishpond

Ignore the letting agent and speak again with the landlord, voicing any concerns you may have.

"You might want to contact the landlord again (G_M will suggest cake is involved) and find out a mutually convenient arrangement"

Tea and biscuits does it for me

booksurr

TeaLeaf wrote: »

You could try making a Subject Access request under the Data Protection Act. That only relates to information they have about you, rather than negotiations between your landlord and them, and they can charge you £10 for it.

as you say that relates only to written info about the OP and will most likely be utterly useless since OP's suspicions relate to "issues" between the agent and the LL which is as others have said a contractual position over which OP has no rights at all since he is not a party to the terms of that contract

doubtless the agency contract with the LL requires fees to be paid if a (fixed term) contract is "renewed". So they only way around it is either the LL sacks the agents (which may or may not incur a termination fee for the LL) or the OP goes to a SPT. Neither outcome has anything to do with the OP having any rights to know what passes between agent and LL by way of commercial discussions

GaggingOrder

Second for the Subject Access Data Request. If nothing else, it'll show them you're no pushover and generate extra work for them.