Can I terminate my tenant's tenancy early for having an unauthorised pet?

higgledypiggledy_pop

leslieknope wrote: »

you have no proof that she's not working aside from the word of a nosy neighbour. she could do shift work, she could work from home as she does something for a bank completely unrelated to the actual customer banking - IT for example? don't make assumptions when they have admirably paid 12 months rent upfront and given it to a dodgy agent who is taking 40%! sort the agent out first!

I am not making assumptions about the dog, I know for certain that it is living there! And that it is enormous! The things I am not certain about include cat, status of female and how reputable the tenants really are as it seems unlikely now that any proper employment references were obtained. The dog is even more of an issue now that I may not have any deposit to cover its dirty damages!! I will have to get an inspection done as soon as possible but I don't know who to ask, I am not dealing with any more 'professionals' after this!

higgledypiggledy_pop

leslieknope wrote: »

does anything come up when you google it?

No, not for the Letting Solutions, I did get various results for the agent's name but it is a common name for someone of Turkish origin and I have no idea if these things are related to the agent or not, there are no photos coming up that look like him.

LKRDN_Morgan

higgledypiggledy_pop wrote: »

Then I will just have to make sure that they do not find out about any of this, and be none the wiser when they eventually leave. Maybe I will also have to hope that their hound does damage something, preferably expensive and ugly so that I can take it from what they are owed!!

Don't you think if you try to make any deductions from the deposit the tenants will challenge it leading to them finding out it's not been protected?

higgledypiggledy_pop

I am putting together a dossier to take to the police before HMRC come after me. I have the tenancy agreement for this rental, several email back and forths and an agreement signed by the agent which has his name and the business name and (not working) telephone number which was for the first rental. Now that I read it again it is extremely vague, it states only that I agree to instruct the agent to find a tenant and for them to administrate rent at a %15 overall fee and for them to automatically deal with 'the appropriate taxation' prior to transferring the money to me. There is not actually any mention of a figure so there may be another document I signed about that but have not been given a copy of

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

leslieknope wrote: »

you have no proof that she's not working aside from the word of a nosy neighbour. she could do shift work, she could work from home as she does something for a bank completely unrelated to the actual customer banking - IT for example? don't make assumptions when they have admirably paid 12 months rent upfront and given it to a dodgy agent who is taking 40%! sort the agent out first!

For all the OP knows they ARE the agent. Invent a mythical agent, call and say you will rent someone's house out for them, "find" some tenants, tenants claim to have paid the mythical agent 12 months rent. Everybody's happy. Except the OP, obviously.

aneary

higgledypiggledy_pop wrote: »

As I have said before I have been trying to contact the agent for two weeks, firstly about the dog and now about this tax issue, I have left 20+ voicemails and now the phone doesn't even ring any more when I call so as you can see I am left out in the cold. I have checked for the name '(Agent's surname) Letting Solutions' on the Companies House web search but it does not appear, however I am told that this only registered limited companies and I don't know if that's what kind of operation the agent was running.

If it's a real letting agent it will be registered, it will almost certainly be limited and vat registered.

I think you've been had, didn't you say this all occurred via a friend could you not speak to him/her get some more information?

higgledypiggledy_pop

aneary wrote: »

If it's a real letting agent it will be registered, it will almost certainly be limited and vat registered.

I think you've been had, didn't you say this all occurred via a friend could you not speak to him/her get some more information?

That is a good idea, more of an acquaintance than a friend but I will try to get in touch with him.

leslieknope

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

For all the OP knows they ARE the agent. Invent a mythical agent, call and say you will rent someone's house out for them, "find" some tenants, tenants claim to have paid the mythical agent 12 months rent. Everybody's happy. Except the OP, obviously.

OP has rented the property before with this agent and different tenants so i don't think this is going to be the case. plus nosy neighbour has been taking pictures so i'm sure they would recognise the agent.

higgledypiggledy_pop

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

For all the OP knows they ARE the agent. Invent a mythical agent, call and say you will rent someone's house out for them, "find" some tenants, tenants claim to have paid the mythical agent 12 months rent. Everybody's happy. Except the OP, obviously.

This is not possible, I have seen photos of the tenants, they are not very clear because they were taken through a window from some distance but the man was definitely not the agent.

fairy_lights

leslieknope wrote: »

OP has rented the property before with this agent and different tenants so i don't think this is going to be the case. plus nosy neighbour has been taking pictures so i'm sure they would recognise the agent.

Don't you see?? It seems so obvious! The 'nosy neighbour' has been in on it all along running the con with the tenants. I mean what do we really know about her, is she really who she says she is? Does she happen to have a young Turkish lover?