Question for Landlords using letting agents

corell

I've recently found myself in a situation with nightmare neighbours.
I've reported the issue to the letting agency they are renting through. It has been around 6 weeks since I reported the issues, along with an extensive diary of events from the last 6 months. The agent has done absolutely nothing in this time. I've now reported the problem to the local council, and other neighbouring properties have also complained to the agent. I downloaded the Land Registry details for the property, however the address listed for the owners is the neighbouring property I'm having issues with, and the owners do not live there.

My point for posting, and my question is If you are a landlord, how would you feel knowing your agent hadn't passed on information such as this? Is this common? Would you want to know there are issues? Would you feel ok with a neighbour contacting you regarding this? Issues I'm talking about are drugs, anti-social behaviour, damage to property (theirs and ours), threats, mental illness and unstable behaviour which is scaring children.

I do not have contact details for the owners, just names so I'm unable to do much with it apart from ask the agent for the details and hope I'm given them.

G_M

Different landlord willhave different views.

Some may be concered, either about their tenants' activities and/or about their lettting agents' non-action.

Other landlordsmay take the view that as long as the rent is being paid, and the property is not being damaged, then the tenants' behaviour is none of their business. It is a simple neighbour dispute.

Assuming you DO get hold of the landlord, what do you eepect them to do? Their only option really is to evict, always asuming there are legal grounds to do so (eg end of a fixed term, rent arrears, proven illegal activity etc

Cakeguts

Our main agent would be round there talking to you about the neighbours and then would be on to us to ask us what they wanted us to do. That is if the awful neighbours had got through their checks to start with which is unlikely. We have a full managed service and have had the same agents for many years. We also let in expensive areas. What the agent is likely to do will depend on what service the landlord has paid for.

00ec25

what proof do you have that the agency has NOT passed on your complaint?

the LL is running a business in order to make money. They are not a social worker responsible for local peace and harmony - it would appear the LL has filed your compliant in the bin.

your position is no different to that of an owner occupier - you can either live with your neighbours or you can move.

Bossypants

I would want to know, and if it was as bad as you describe, would probably end up firing the agent for not vetting the tenant properly in the first place and then failing to inform me that they were causing a nuisance.

Having said that, I do also leave my agent a certain amount of discretion in what to tell me and what I needn't be bothered with. For example, there was one neighbour who seemed to basically resent the tenants for existing, and spent half her life down the agents offices complaining about the most random things like him starting his car at 5am. Not being otherwise noisy, mind, just literally starting the (perfectly ordinary) engine to go to work. The agent didn't inform me of that until much later, once they had managed to broker an uneasy peace, which I think was the right call on their part, as the tenant was doing nothing wrong in the eyes of most reasonable people and so there was nothing for me to do about it.

tacpot12

I use two letting agents and I would want them to let me know about such problems, not because I would want to do anything, but just because I would like to know about anything that might affect the property. Anti-social tenants also tend not to look after the property - they don't care about anyone.

As far as I know, my contract with both agents is silent on whether they should tell me about any neighbour complaints, so I don't expect they would let me know unless they felt the situation warranted eviction.

Farmer_Johnson

I’d expect my agent to pass the information on, and would welcome anyone else letting me know either, for at least two reasons.

The first is that I don’t want neighbours to suffer from antisocial behaviour, and can’t do anything about it if I don’t know. The second is that antisocial tenants are unlikely to be the sort of people to treat the property with respect either.

Cornucopia

What will you expect the Landlord to do if/when you manage to contact them. Their options within the law are quite limited for these kind of issues, mostly coming down to eviction or, for property damage, withholding of deposit.

corell wrote: »

Issues I'm talking about are drugs...

Police

anti-social behaviour

If serious enough - Police

damage to property (theirs and ours)

Yours - Police/Civil Claim; Theirs - can report it to Managing Agent, but you probably won't hear any more about it.

threats

Police

mental illness and unstable behaviour which is scaring children.

Police. Social Services?

corell

G_M wrote: »

Other landlordsmay take the view that as long as the rent is being paid, and the property is not being damaged, then the tenants' behaviour is none of their business. It is a simple neighbour dispute.

Assuming you DO get hold of the landlord, what do you eepect them to do? Their only option really is to evict, always asuming there are legal grounds to do so (eg end of a fixed term, rent arrears, proven illegal activity etc

I expect them to evict if asking them to calm down hasn't worked. This isn't just us/our property being affected, it's approximately 7 or 8 neighbouring properties, (the majority who have also complained) then the wider neighbourhood so that's a lot of people to move because they have been placed here.
The tenancy is now periodic. Police have been called at times, they won't talk to them or let them in. Although I have read if you are on probation the police can enter the property, the police haven't. The property is being damaged, they're currently running around trying to get help to fix it before an inspection. The rent is paid via a parent so that it is paid, otherwise it would not be, due to the drug/alcohol addictions of the tenants.

They managed to get this property with help from social services as they were evicted from their previous property for what I assume is the behaviour they are now showing here.

00ec25 wrote: »

what proof do you have that the agency has NOT passed on your complaint?

your position is no different to that of an owner occupier - you can either live with your neighbours or you can move.

I asked. They said it hasn't been passed on. They have only tried to contact social services and asked the tenants to calm down. This resulted in us getting more abuse shouted at us.

As I said above, it's not just us. It's all local neighbours being affected. That's a lot of houses to move because of one bad couple. Most families have been here 5-10 years or more so I think this is unfair.

Bossypants wrote: »

Having said that, I do also leave my agent a certain amount of discretion in what to tell me and what I needn't be bothered with. For example, there was one neighbour who seemed to basically resent the tenants for existing, and spent half her life down the agents offices complaining about the most random things like him starting his car at 5am.

We haven't had a decent night sleep since these tenants moved in. There used to be a family next door and we heard nothing.
We have had 7/8 months of having to go to work on 3 hours sleep. Banging all night, fighting, loud music, shouting, shouting abuse, slamming doors all night, repeatedly walking outside then walking inside each time slamming the doors so loud you jump out of your sleep with fright. It's not little things and I'm not nit-picking. I don't know if it's part and parcel with their mental health issues or if they just don't care. They have issues with us neighbours for starting cars on a morning (8am) and waking them so I hear what you are saying but it's not like that at all.

It's a good neighbourhood, but now even the local kids don't play outside anymore. Just wondering which way to turn, and the owners seem to be one of the only options left and since they don't even know yet, time has been wasted if eviction is a route they will take.

Cakeguts

corell wrote: »

I expect them to evict if asking them to calm down hasn't worked. This isn't just us/our property being affected, it's approximately 7 or 8 neighbouring properties, (the majority who have also complained) then the wider neighbourhood so that's a lot of people to move because they have been placed here.
The tenancy is now periodic. Police have been called at times, they won't talk to them or let them in. Although I have read if you are on probation the police can enter the property, the police haven't. The property is being damaged, they're currently running around trying to get help to fix it before an inspection. The rent is paid via a parent so that it is paid, otherwise it would not be, due to the drug/alcohol addictions of the tenants.

They managed to get this property with help from social services as they were evicted from their previous property for what I assume is the behaviour they are now showing here.



I asked. They said it hasn't been passed on. They have only tried to contact social services and asked the tenants to calm down. This resulted in us getting more abuse shouted at us.

As I said above, it's not just us. It's all local neighbours being affected. That's a lot of houses to move because of one bad couple. Most families have been here 5-10 years or more so I think this is unfair.



We haven't had a decent night sleep since these tenants moved in. There used to be a family next door and we heard nothing.
We have had 7/8 months of having to go to work on 3 hours sleep. Banging all night, fighting, loud music, shouting, shouting abuse, slamming doors all night, repeatedly walking outside then walking inside each time slamming the doors so loud you jump out of your sleep with fright. It's not little things and I'm not nit-picking. I don't know if it's part and parcel with their mental health issues or if they just don't care. They have issues with us neighbours for starting cars on a morning (8am) and waking them so I hear what you are saying but it's not like that at all.

It's a good neighbourhood, but now even the local kids don't play outside anymore. Just wondering which way to turn, and the owners seem to be one of the only options left and since they don't even know yet, time has been wasted if eviction is a route they will take.

Nothing to do with mental illness. Just pure antisocial behaviour. They don't care about anyone but themselves.

supa34

The agents get 10% of the rent, so aslong as they pay rent, agents are happy and landlord is happy. You can only get in touch with council and keep a log if everything as proof. Get police involved but first thing they do is come to you to make it obvious who complained and then give them slap on wrist.

Just keep getting in touch with social but all that does is move this problem to someone else's backyard so even social know who the bad apples are.

Its modern society. What can you do?