Agent Ceased trading

[tallbob]

Hi

I live in Spain

I have received an email this morning from one of my tenants ( I have no idea how he found out my email)

that he wishes to leave at the end of his tenancy, he has been to my agents who are closed

searching my junk folder I find a 2 line email last week advising me that my agents have ceased trading with immediate effect

I have 7 tenants over 12 flats and without wishing to complicate this email further does anyone know how I stand with rents and Housing Benefit already collected?

I am trying to appoint a new agent asap

hope someone can help

[Preston]

Hi

This sounds like a bit of a nightmare.

If I understand your question in relation to the rents issue correctly, the answer is that any money collected on your behalf by the agent is definitely yours, not theirs. The other side of this coin though is that any money paid to your agent by the tenants will be counted as paid, so you wont be able to collect it twice.

If the agent is any good, he/she should have deposited the money in a separate client account so that it didnt get mixed up with their own money. If they did do this, the bank shouldnt allow them to use it for any other purpose - or indeed to take it for themselves if the agent owes them money.

You havent said whether you are able to contact the old agent? If you cant its worth trying to track them down urgently. You could ask them or their bank where the money is and what kind of account it is held in. Try to find out the name of the account (e.g. does it have client account in the title) and to get details of the original mandate (i.e. the instructions given to the bank when the account was first set up). All of this information will be very useful if you need to take action to recover any monies owed to you. The bank probably wont tell you much at this stage, but at but at least you can register an interest if there is a client account held there.

You will also need to start collecting together evidence of what has actually been paid to the agent, either by the tenants or direct from housing benefit. I have experience of a similar situation some years ago and it turned out to be very difficult to prove to a court exactly how much money the agent had actually collected because their records were so bad.

It goes without saying that you need to ask the tenants and housing benefit departments to stop paying your agent straight away.

Do any of your properties have gas, in which case checking whether the safety certificates are out of date is probably a priority.

Good luck

Preston

[tallbob]

Hi

This sounds like a bit of a nightmare.

If I understand your question in relation to the rents issue correctly, the answer is that any money collected on your behalf by the agent is definitely yours, not theirs. The other side of this coin though is that any money paid to your agent by the tenants will be counted as paid, so you wont be able to collect it twice.

If the agent is any good, he/she should have deposited the money in a separate client account so that it didnt get mixed up with their own money. If they did do this, the bank shouldnt allow them to use it for any other purpose - or indeed to take it for themselves if the agent owes them money.

You havent said whether you are able to contact the old agent? If you cant its worth trying to track them down urgently. You could ask them or their bank where the money is and what kind of account it is held in. Try to find out the name of the account (e.g. does it have client account in the title) and to get details of the original mandate (i.e. the instructions given to the bank when the account was first set up). All of this information will be very useful if you need to take action to recover any monies owed to you. The bank probably wont tell you much at this stage, but at but at least you can register an interest if there is a client account held there.

You will also need to start collecting together evidence of what has actually been paid to the agent, either by the tenants or direct from housing benefit. I have experience of a similar situation some years ago and it turned out to be very difficult to prove to a court exactly how much money the agent had actually collected because their records were so bad.

It goes without saying that you need to ask the tenants and housing benefit departments to stop paying your agent straight away.

Do any of your properties have gas, in which case checking whether the safety certificates are out of date is probably a priority.

Good luck

Preston

Hi Preston

Thanks for the advice

I have emailed the Housing Benefit department of my local council asking what benefits have been paid to my agents recently, I have had a very short reply saying they are looking into it, but there is no reply to my question asking them to pay any benefit directly to me until I appoint a new agent

I have had no joy in tracing the bank my agents use, but it doesn't help living abroad and before anyone thinks I earn a fortune and am living it up in Marbella, I have virtually nothing in the bank, I am holding onto my properties by the skin of my teeth and I live on my partners pension, I cannot afford to live in the UK at all

Then yesterday a totally weird thing happened, I got an emailed statement from my agents totalling all last months income and expenditure, at the moment the net has not appeared in the bank ( which is not unusual it sometimes appears a week after the statement ) but that was all, it is just as though nothing has happened, although I have my email from the owner of my agents saying they are ceasing trading with immediate effect and are going into liquidation, so I replied with a small query and they have not replied back to me

Perhaps they are tidying up all the files etc and are going to pay me up to the day they ceased trading ( oh look a flying pig!! )

I belong to the landlords association of the area my properties are in and through them I have contacted a new agent so hopefully they can get things moving, just knowing my rents are still being collected would ease my worries a lot

Finally Preston you mentioned the gas certificates according to what info I have been sent that is not a problem

Bob