Rent Arrears - Letter from letting agents

waseem432000

Hi everyone, here for some advice. 

I currently rent an apartment from a letting agent and I have be moving there for over 4 years now.

In November last year, the washing machine broke (washing machine and dryer came up with fittings). I reported that in letting agent system, spoke on phone with them for over month and half they finally confirmed on a phone call that I can buy the machine and deduct the amount from rent(got advice on that in another thread here). 

I bought the machine in January and finally got that fixed in February(needed the kitchen worktop to be replaced as it was rotten and letting agents arranged that work via a contractor). Confirmed with property manager on phone to adjust that amount (£400) in February and got confirmation, sent the receipt and informed them about the rent adjustment on email. 

Received a call from someone from their office the day after the standing order goes, explained it with property manager’s name, he said that he will check with the team and update their records. Had another call from someone from their team a couple of days after, explained the same thing, she also said that she will update the record. 

Received a letter early this week asking for that amount, called their office again and spoke to a person(noted down name and time of call), same story again and also sent them an email with the receipt, previous email. Received another letter early today again asking for that amount and informing me that they will start adding the interest on top of that. 

What should I do next? Every single person I speak with, agrees and assures me that they will update their records, even went to their local branch but they said that their property management team doesn’t work from office so phone and email. 

Looking forward to your valuable suggestions. 

theartfullodger

You write/email about the matter to the landlord (yes landlord), copy agent, keep copy.


Your landlord is whoever is thus named on tenancy agreement.  Yes i understand agent has been handling everything. If you have no address for landlord spend £3 with gov.uk land registry for deeds of your rented home.

Artful, landlord since 2000

propertyrental

theartfullodger said:

You write/email about the matter to the landlord (yes landlord), copy agent, keep copy.


Your landlord is whoever is thus named on tenancy agreement.  Yes i understand agent has been handling everything. If you have no address for landlord spend £3 with gov.uk land registry for deeds of your rented home.

Artful, landlord since 2000

and/or  write to the agent asking for the LL's actual address, quoting the Landlord & Tenant Act 1985  S1.

macman

So you went and purchased stuff on behalf of the LL without getting any written confirmation that they would reimburse you for it? Nor did you email them to confirm the arrangement as agreed on the phone. until some months later?

waseem432000

macman said:

So you went and purchased stuff on behalf of the LL without getting any written confirmation that they would reimburse you for it? Nor did you email them to confirm the arrangement as agreed on the phone. until some months later?

More or less, yes. Thought the confirmation on the phone was quite clear and there were a couple of emails that I sent over after the phone confirmation basically discussing the delivery charges and model. Never received any email reply but did always receive a call back. 

RHemmings

theartfullodger said:

You write/email about the matter to the landlord (yes landlord), copy agent, keep copy.


Your landlord is whoever is thus named on tenancy agreement.  Yes i understand agent has been handling everything. If you have no address for landlord spend £3 with gov.uk land registry for deeds of your rented home.

Artful, landlord since 2000

Curious about this one. For my previous house (rented), the address on the title register for both landlords (two names) is the actual rented house itself. Clearly they actually live somewhere else. The address for the landlord (only one name) on the tenancy agreement is c/o the letting agency, with no home address given. Also, while the name is recognisable as being one of the owners on the title deed, the surname for the landlord given on the tenancy agreement is only half the surname on the title deed. 

Also, in the tenancy deposit scheme, only the lettings agency is given as a landlord. Neither of the names of the actual (according to title register) owners of the house are listed. 

In the context of this thread, for the OP the title register may or may not reveal the actual address of the landlord. As it doesn't for me. 

Generally I'd also want to know why a landlord would conceal their identity and address in the ways that my (past) landlord has. Personally I'm slightly suspicious that there may be tax avoidance going on. In other threads it's been said that HMRC can obtain details of landlords and lettings from deposit schemes, and identify tax avoidance. I wonder if this may be harder if the landlord's name isn't mentioned in the deposit scheme. But, note, this is only a vague suspicion of mine. No more than that. 

housebuyer143

They no doubt have agreed to it and accept they have but have now realized they will lose out on the management fee if you don't pay the £400 and are probably wondering how they fix this on the system.

It's probably incompetence rather than deliberate tbh. The letters and texts are almost certainly automatically generated as you are showing in arrears. 

Put in a formal complaint to the agent.

RHemmings

housebuyer143 said:

They no doubt have agreed to it and accept they have but have now realized they will lose out on the management fee if you don't pay the £400 and are probably wondering how they fix this on the system.

It's probably incompetence rather than deliberate tbh. The letters and texts are almost certainly automatically generated as you are showing in arrears. 

Put in a formal complaint to the agent.

If the agency is part of the Property Ombudsman Scheme, then they should have a formal complaints procedure on their website or communicated to you by other means. If the OP makes sure that their complaint clearly follows the formal complaints procedure and is undertaken within that, then the agent will know that if they don't sort it then a complaint to the ombudsman becomes possible as the next step. First step for the OP is to check that the agent is a member of the scheme. Doing so by asking the agent directly (even if the information is on the agency's website or in other documents) might (or might not) help focus them in terms of fixing the problem. 

waseem432000

housebuyer143 said:

They no doubt have agreed to it and accept they have but have now realized they will lose out on the management fee if you don't pay the £400 and are probably wondering how they fix this on the system.

It's probably incompetence rather than deliberate tbh. The letters and texts are almost certainly automatically generated as you are showing in arrears. 

Put in a formal complaint to the agent.

The property management at that time said that they don’t want to order the machine themselves as the other services like delivery, installation and taking away the old broken one will require the vendor to contact me so it will be more easier if I bought it, sent them them the invoice and then adjust that in the rent. They also agreed on a budget that was £300 plus the other services. I did had a back and fourth with them including sending them a list of available brands in that range on the email.

Every time I speak to someone on the phone, they agree to that fact by looking at their system and comments on those and then assure me that they will update their system to reflect that expense but it is never updated.

waseem432000

RHemmings said:

theartfullodger said:

You write/email about the matter to the landlord (yes landlord), copy agent, keep copy.


Your landlord is whoever is thus named on tenancy agreement.  Yes i understand agent has been handling everything. If you have no address for landlord spend £3 with gov.uk land registry for deeds of your rented home.

Artful, landlord since 2000

Curious about this one. For my previous house (rented), the address on the title register for both landlords (two names) is the actual rented house itself. Clearly they actually live somewhere else. The address for the landlord (only one name) on the tenancy agreement is c/o the letting agency, with no home address given. Also, while the name is recognisable as being one of the owners on the title deed, the surname for the landlord given on the tenancy agreement is only half the surname on the title deed. 

Also, in the tenancy deposit scheme, only the lettings agency is given as a landlord. Neither of the names of the actual (according to title register) owners of the house are listed. 

In the context of this thread, for the OP the title register may or may not reveal the actual address of the landlord. As it doesn't for me. 

Generally I'd also want to know why a landlord would conceal their identity and address in the ways that my (past) landlord has. Personally I'm slightly suspicious that there may be tax avoidance going on. In other threads it's been said that HMRC can obtain details of landlords and lettings from deposit schemes, and identify tax avoidance. I wonder if this may be harder if the landlord's name isn't mentioned in the deposit scheme. But, note, this is only a vague suspicion of mine. No more than that. 

On my tenancy agreement, the landlord
address is same as the letting agent’s address which is their local branch. Think the landlord lives abroad somewhere but I am not too sure. 

waseem432000

RHemmings said:

housebuyer143 said:

They no doubt have agreed to it and accept they have but have now realized they will lose out on the management fee if you don't pay the £400 and are probably wondering how they fix this on the system.

It's probably incompetence rather than deliberate tbh. The letters and texts are almost certainly automatically generated as you are showing in arrears. 

Put in a formal complaint to the agent.

If the agency is part of the Property Ombudsman Scheme, then they should have a formal complaints procedure on their website or communicated to you by other means. If the OP makes sure that their complaint clearly follows the formal complaints procedure and is undertaken within that, then the agent will know that if they don't sort it then a complaint to the ombudsman becomes possible as the next step. First step for the OP is to check that the agent is a member of the scheme. Doing so by asking the agent directly (even if the information is on the agency's website or in other documents) might (or might not) help focus them in terms of fixing the problem. 

I have a look at their website and they are member of the property ombudsman and do have a formal complaint process and timelines.

Will speak with them again, if they insisted on making the payment, will make it and then lodge a formal complaint. Is there a point for me to record that phone call?