Letting Agents Fees Recover. Tenant Leaving Early

MichaelMichael

Dear Money Saving Experts,
Please help advise me. Our flat is let through an agent to a tenant for 2 years, the tenacy agreement has a beak clause after 12 months. The tenant has given the proper 2 months notice to leave early. The letting fees were paid up front for the 2 year let, as a percentage of the 2 year rental. The tenant is allowed to leave with 207 days remaining, no problems. The letting agent will not return to me pro rata the fees paid for 207 days unless I re-let the property with them. So, I am tied in for another tenancy agreement with a new tenant, so not to lose the paid fees for the old tenant.
I would like to have a break from this letting agent and decide, with no conditions where to rent out the flat with or have a go on my own. This is more work but less stress.

I have rang a couple of letting agents and they have both said they would not do this, they would return the fees for the period the tenancy was ended.

How do I challenge the current letting agent and get out of this mess. It seems it is their policy not to return fees unless you re-sign a new tenancy with them. I assume it is in their terms and conditions that I signed at the start of the old tenancy, even though I spent a good hour going over it in their offices last time, in October 2016.

This clause is unfair and restrictive, as I would lose the 7 months fees paid up front. I would really appreciate some help on this, as the letting agent is pressing me to sign up with a new tenant for 2 more years.

Kind regards
Michael

G_M

What does your contract with your letting agent say?

Please quote it.

FBaby

Why would they return the fee? It doesn't make any sense. They didn't contract with you to ensure that you would have tenants for 2 years because they couldn't do that. What you could have done is say that you only wanted fixed period ast, but even then, you would have had to accept to have to pay a fee again each time a tenant leaves. That is of course, unless you are paying a hefty monthly amount that comes with a service of guaranteed tenants/rent for X period of time.

Don't assume that doing it on your own is less stress. It certainly isn't, it's just different stress. My view is that if you are going to be stressed either way, I prefer not have to pay monthly for it. However, if you don't want much worse stress, you better do your homework properly because running a landlord business requires to know the laws associated with it. One small mistake can result in very costly consequences, including potential jail term (ie. not installing a carbon monoxyde alarm and a gas leak resulting in death).

Comms69

MichaelMichael wrote: »

Dear Money Saving Experts,
Please help advise me. Our flat is let through an agent to a tenant for 2 years, the tenacy agreement has a beak clause after 12 months. The tenant has given the proper 2 months notice to leave early. The letting fees were paid up front for the 2 year let, as a percentage of the 2 year rental. The tenant is allowed to leave with 207 days remaining, no problems. The letting agent will not return to me pro rata the fees paid for 207 days unless I re-let the property with them. So, I am tied in for another tenancy agreement with a new tenant, so not to lose the paid fees for the old tenant.
I would like to have a break from this letting agent and decide, with no conditions where to rent out the flat with or have a go on my own. This is more work but less stress.

I have rang a couple of letting agents and they have both said they would not do this, they would return the fees for the period the tenancy was ended.

How do I challenge the current letting agent and get out of this mess. It seems it is their policy not to return fees unless you re-sign a new tenancy with them. I assume it is in their terms and conditions that I signed at the start of the old tenancy, even though I spent a good hour going over it in their offices last time, in October 2016.

This clause is unfair and restrictive, as I would lose the 7 months fees paid up front. I would really appreciate some help on this, as the letting agent is pressing me to sign up with a new tenant for 2 more years.

Kind regards
Michael

But you chose them, and you agreed.


You're a business, and so are held to a higher standard. If this clause was an issue the time to challenge it was before you signed it.