Difficult tenant - can anyone recommend a good property management company?

lpegden

Hi 

Does anyone have any recommendations regarding a property management agency? 

To explain briefly, my brother rents his house to a tenant. My brother experienced severe mental heath difficulties during the pandemic and hasn't been on top of liaising with tenant. Tenant has subsequently not paid £7k of rent over the past 6 months, saying that he used his rent to cover things that have broken in the house.

When trying to understand exactly what has broken in the house etc, the tenant has being fairly hostile in communications [he has blocked me over WhatsApp and shouted at me over the phone]. We are clear that its unlikely we will see that £7k again, but would like to check that the property is okay and to ask him to leave in as peaceful way possible.

We'd like the support of a property management company if possible - does anyone have any recommendations? 

canaldumidi

You need a local letting agency.

Post 9: Letting agents: how should a landlord select or sack?

But bear in mind they cannot institute legal processes eg eviction. Only the owner/landlord or his legal representative (solicitor) can do that.

The agent can, though, communicate with the tenant, arrange and undertake inspections, arrange repairs, write requestion rent etc uptothepoint where legal action commences.

£7K in rent arrears - how many months rent does that equate to? If 2 or more, serve a S8 immediately. An agent can do tis, but not the subsequent application to the court for possession.

Continental

Where’s the house located? England? Scotland? Which region? Most landlords choose a property management company in the same area where the rental property is located.

Choose one which is a member of ARLA (Association of Rental Letting Agents) and I suggest you google ARLA for more info. I hope your brother placed the tenant’s deposit into an approved scheme and has up to date gas safe certificates (if there is gas), smoke/carbon monoxide detectors, electrical safety certs etc.

See www.landlordzone.co.uk for information for landlords on letting their properties, legal obligations etc. There is also a very useful “Residential Lettings” forum too.

lpegden

Okay thank you that's really helpful. It is more than 2 months, yes. What is an S8? The tenant did try to communicate with my brother via email about things not working in the house. However my brother was in hospital at the time so only saw these much later. Ideally the tenant can provide receipts for work that equate to £7k. Sadly I suspect my brother's been taken advantage of, hence the hostility from the tenant. 

[Deleted User]

You need to be clear with any letting agency as to exactly the services that they will be providing to you. No doubt your brother will still have to have a hand in various steps to sort this out.

I would sign up to the National Registered Landlords Association and use their advice line. This is at a cost but was worth it for me. (Of course I do not work for them, in making this recommendation).

This is matter of issuing a section 8 (correctly), then we know it could be a matter of a couple of years before the matter is resolved.
Yes, he will lose a lot of money over this.

By the way, the tenant is not entitled to deduct anything for 'repairs' unilaterally, that will be absolute nonsense I'll bet. He owes all of the arrears. Off to Court.

canaldumidi

lpegden said:

Okay thank you that's really helpful. It is more than 2 months, yes. What is an S8?

Read my post here:

Post 4: Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

S8 Notice

Pixie5740

lpegden said:

Hi 

Does anyone have any recommendations regarding a property management agency? 

To explain briefly, my brother rents his house to a tenant. My brother experienced severe mental heath difficulties during the pandemic and hasn't been on top of liaising with tenant. Tenant has subsequently not paid £7k of rent over the past 6 months, saying that he used his rent to cover things that have broken in the house.

When trying to understand exactly what has broken in the house etc, the tenant has being fairly hostile in communications [he has blocked me over WhatsApp and shouted at me over the phone]. We are clear that its unlikely we will see that £7k again, but would like to check that the property is okay and to ask him to leave in as peaceful way possible.

We'd like the support of a property management company if possible - does anyone have any recommendations? 

I'm not sure a letting agent is really going to help your brother.  It is difficult to find a good letting agent who won't just keep passing things back to your brother.  I don't think sending messages on WhatsApp or phoning the tenant was a good idea especially as you have no contract with the tenant.

Do you have POA to deal with your brother's affairs or is your brother's mental health such that you can help him do what needs to be done?

A tenant can only deduct money from the rent to pay for repairs after following a specific sequence of actions.  Step 1 is writing to the landlord at the address for the serving of notices reporting the repairs.  Did the tenant ever do that? If he didn't then he had no right to withhold rent and is in arrears.  In your brother's situation if the rent arrears equate to more than 2 months rent I'd proceed with Section 8 Ground 8 immediately as per canaldumidi's advice above.

lpegden

Continental said:

Where’s the house located? England? Scotland? Which region? Most landlords choose a property management company in the same area where the rental property is located.

Choose one which is a member of ARLA (Association of Rental Letting Agents) and I suggest you google ARLA for more info. I hope your brother placed the tenant’s deposit into an approved scheme and has up to date gas safe certificates (if there is gas), smoke/carbon monoxide detectors, electrical safety certs etc.

See www.landlordzone.co.uk for information for landlords on letting their properties, legal obligations etc. There is also a very useful “Residential Lettings” forum too.

Its located in London. Yes, the deposit was placed into an approved scheme. My brother was a very diligent landlord prior to him becoming mentally unwell. He was with a property management company but they've gone bust as of August, to make matters worse. 

deannagone

You might get more use out of something like https://landlordslawyer.co.uk/ or another service that helps evict tenants like https://landlordadvice.co.uk/ .  Be aware a professional tenant can give a LL quite a run around, so it can be worth paying for a service like this.  In my opinion LA's aren't on the ball with serving S21 correctly etc, as another long term poster on here says, you don't need any qualifications or experience to be an LA.

I'm afraid the previous LA can't have been too good if 1) they have gone bust 2) they allowed the tenant to accrue £7k of arrears without any follow up or action.  It must have taken some time, even in London.  They may have even swallowed up rent due your brother.

knightstyle

Make sure the gas certificate and any other bits are in order and up to date or the tenant may use this against your brother.

aoleks

you don't need a management company, you need to serve an eviction notice...