Urpad Letting Agents Bristol

Bazzaboom

Hi can anyone assist me, i made a dreadful mistake of employing Urpad to find me tenants and collect rents. I signed their contract but soon after realised that they didn't deliver on what they claimed in the contract. Late rent and no communication to the landlord of why or whats going on. They hid behind their contract that they have 2 weeks after rent due date to pay to landlord. The point i was making was that no communication as to why its late etc was more my point hence me chasing them for information as only 50% received into the account on time.

That's the first issue and my agent didn't even know ref the late payment so alarm bells rang then. The second  problem just over a month later i encountered with my second property was that they refused a genuine electrical test Certificate carried out by the same Registered Electrical company i had used just 5 weeks prior for the first property they took on and excepted the same test cert.

The outcome was that both certificates were in fact valid and genuine. The letting agents back office offered to use their own contractors to issue the Electrical Test certificate after rejecting the one i had submitted, they also couldn't advise why it wasn't valid and after me churning through legislation myself for 4 hours they reluctantly advised we will contact their legal team for clarity and get back to you when they get back to us.

Tenants due to move in with 48 hours of this nonsense but they advised they wouldn't be without appropriate documentation which if correct diligence was being carried out i would agree but this is a manager telling me its not valid but didn't know why its not valid apart from he said its the wrong colour form. Nothing in legislation to support that nor on the EICR website either. My Electrician advised, how are they rejecting documentation without knowing why, i advised they have offered to use their own contractors, he advised to wait and assured me the one issued is correct and not to listen to them and await what their legal teams advise as he would be very interested to hear and see this response.
As above one issued by my electrician was fine.

I complained and requested due to the nonsense and ref the second incident ref basic legislation requirements that they should know what is a legal certificate and what is not and also if not sure to get legal accurate correspondence to support such claim when advising their client IE me. By way of redress and i explained my time is not free etc i requested a 50% discount in the finders fee to compensate me for their mistakes this was £240. The operations manager apologised blah blah blah further staff training etc but no offer of compensation. I again wrote to him and he then passed the buck to my agent ref compensation who insulted me with an offer of £60 and advised he couldn't make the decision further blah blah and only the owner could. A ridiculous situation and yes i know i was just being fobbed off and hoping i would go away and allow them to continue to collect my rents and commission.

i wrote to all 3 directors owner included and advised  it would appear i being sent around the block ref this and need them to make the right decision to resolve this and we can continue to do business and move on. The owner advised he didn't believe any mistake had taken place and that was that. I  then wrote back and advised them of one months notice due to them breaching their contract etc. They then kept a whole months rent and claimed that's their right as i have signed up to an agreement that tied me to them for that duration as a minimum of 6 months. 

I have attempted to communicate with the owner and advised that i would still be with them if they were as competent as claimed and advised at the beginning of the contract and that i have only left due to numerous blunders which i had to bring to there attention which i believe is a breach of their contract.

Today i emailed the owner again and advised i would be going legal regarding claiming back the £875 they have taken and that could i have their complaints procedure, all GDPR documentation they hold on me properties etc and also their solicitors details.

His reply was shocking to say the least, he advised he is not interested in my BS complaint (his words) and if i want to go legal go ahead.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated. I dread to think if he treats his client landlords in this way how is he treating tenants living in properties they mange, may be the trust pilot reviews have a lot to be said.  

  

Ectophile

After reading all that, I'm not sure that you actually have any complaint that warrants breaking the contract.

You're running a business, and so are they.  Which means what matters more than anything else is what the contract says.  If it says they can pay you 2 weeks late, then they can pay you 2 weeks late, and they don't have to explain why.

They aren't required to have a complaints procedure, unless there's some regulation that says they do.  I'm not sure what the relevance of GDPR is.  They don't have to have any solicitors, and even if they do have, they don't have to give you the details.

Aylesbury_Duck

Seems straightforward to me.  You're operating a business, you have a dispute with another business and you've told them you're going to sue them.

So sue them.