De-instruct Letting Agent

[Elephant]

Advice much appreciated.....

The contract my tenants signed was for a fixed 12 month period with no break clause. We have agreed independently that they are happy to go onto a periodic tenancy/rolling contract as it suits both parties. We manage the property.

The letting agent collects the rent as they did not offer a finders fee only option. I now wish to de-instruct them but have been told that I will incur extremely high 'renewal fees' even if they do nothing - no admin/paperwork and no longer collect the rent. They have said that if I keep the tenants I have to pay an ongoing renewal - which amounts to almost one months rent.

This seems like an unfair term as they are doing precisely no work for this money. I have said that when the tenants leave I am more than happy to use them again to find tenants and set etc but that we cannot pay that just because the tenants are remaining.

 

Any advice?

Many thanks!

[Richlist]

Somebody with more knowledge & experience of this situation will hopefully be along shortly. In the meantime here are my thoughts.......

* You presumably have a written contract between you and the agents ? If so you should check what it says, if there is no contract you might be able to refuse to pay.

* Do you pay the agents for collecting the rent, or is that service included in the initial fee ?

* Who draws up the AST, references, legal requirements, handles deposit protection and the almost 20 or so other requirements when letting ?

* There is no requirement for you or the tenants to have a new AST after 12 months......its perfectly ok for it to go periodic and you should not let the agent bully you into accepting their requirements.

[Elephant]

Thank you for your response, this is really helpful. 

I will look into all these points.