Dodgy Letting Agent Woes

[ja99son]

Being a new landlord and a little bit green, I decided to let my 3 bed property through an agent. I thought this would be the safest option. How wrong I was.

6 weeks after the tenants moved in, I carried out an inspection. The property could not really have been any worse.

There were at least 12 adults and 4 children in the house.

Most were smoking.

There were at least 2 cats.

1 room had been completely redecorated.

Satellite dishes had been put up.

My fridge was in the garden along with some other furniture.

The front door lock had been changed.

Internal doors' door closers had been removed.

i.e. Virtually all the rules (and all of the above are included) in the contract have been broken.

I asked the agent if he had done an inspection. He said he had not. He did one a few days later and said everything was fine. I disagreed and told him to evict them asap.

He initially told me that he would have them out in a few weeks. I asked him what would happen if they refused. His response alarmed me. He told me he would send some of his 'big boys' round.

Pretty soon, the few weeks became 2 months and then that became the end of the 6 month agreement.

Since they were on a 6 month AST, I thought fair enough.

The agent says he served a section 21 notice on them with 2 months of the tenancy remaining.I have yet to see a copy of this.

I am also yet to see any agreement between myself and the agent.

I think (and I may be wrong) that he should have produced a letter showing that the deposit had been paid and was being held in a deposit protection scheme.

I have doubts that the proper vetting and referencing checks were made.

I arrived at my property last week - a week after the tenancy had expired and expected it to be empty. To my surprise, all of the tenants were still there and it looked like there as a family in each room. At least 12 adults were still there.

When I approached the agent, he told me that the property he was moving them in to had a problem with the boiler and that they would be gone in 3 days. I said this was unacceptable and that they should be gone asap.

The 3 days became a week and now it has been 13 days.

The tenants themselves have told me that the property he had for them to move in to was too small.

It seems the agent is acting in his own selfish interests. The property he want to move them in to is one that he manages if not owns.

Throughout the last 4 or 5 months, I have struggled to get hold of the agent. When I have reached him he has said I'll call you back and then doesn't. Attempts to call him back result in him not answering his phone. At every turn, he has simply been deceitful.

I have a feeling that he is sub letting the property to the tenants and filling his greedy boots whilst the property is being abused. I also think he is schooling the tenants on their rights to remain in the property and is keeping them there for as long as possible.

The property has understandably suffered far more wear and tear than it should have and is now in need of complete redecoration.

I want the tenants out so need to know where I stand from a legal view point. I have no gripe with them however. I just want them out.

I am also interested to know what I can do to hold the agent to account.

Any other advice gratefully received.

thanks.

[Trenners]

Hi Ja99son,

A lot of things to cover ... I will try and be brief.

First the positives - you are not complaining about the fact that the rent isn't being paid .... so we must assume that the rent account is fully up-to-date - which is unusual in the type of scenario that you paint!

Now the rest ......

Letting Agents do not typically inspect until 3 months or even 6 months into a tenancy. This is perfectly normal. It is encouraging that, after your inspection, the agent went around himself. The LA cannot control the way that a tenant lives. They can advise the tenant "not to smoke", "please replace the door closers", "please put the room painted back to the original colour" etc etc - BUT they cannot make the tenant do anything! I appreciate that some of these will break the clauses in the original agreement .... but that is not the LA fault!

12 adults and 4 children in a single, 3 bedroom, house is definitely overcrowded but you do not state how many tenants you were expecting at the property or how many tenants are listed on the tenancy agreement?

The LA - despite receiving multiple complaints from you - MUST abide by the UK tenancy laws. Getting problematic tenants out in a "few weeks" is never going to happen as the proper possession procedures need to be followed and these can take weeks or months. I would assume that the comment about "sending the boys around" was a LA joke!

If a valid Section 21 has been served then you should ask for a copy of it. If it has, indeed, expired then you should start Court proceedings against the tenant ASAP - irrespective of what the LA says or promises. The LA seems weak and "says stuff" to try and stop you complaining. Ignore the weakness and start repossession procedures yourself. You will also need a copy of the Tenancy Deposit Protection Certificate - demand this from the LA as well.

The most important thing right now is to get your property back and get the tenants out. Focus on this .... and this alone for the time being.

The quickest way to achieve possession is to get them moved by either your LA or Environmental Health. 12 adults and 4 children in a single property is a health risk and I would be informing EH about this situation. If you wait for the Courts then it will take a minimum of 28 days to get a possession order and,if they do not leave peacefully then, a further 6 weeks to get a Court Bailiff.

So, if it was me, I would even offer to cover the cost of their removals (because that is a cheaper outcome than having to pay the Court and the Bailiff).

As for the LA - I would ask for a meeting with the Director of the business so that they can explain how 12 adults and 4 children came to be living at your property. It is possible that the tenant has duped both yourself and the LA .... and it is also possible that the LA is "not 100% straight". Either way - you need the facts before judging whether the LA has a case to answer or not.

In summary, get the property back, find out the facts by meeting with the LA then decide on appropriate action - if any.

Good Luck,

Mark

[ja99son]

Hi Mark,

Many thanks for taking the time to answer my queries. You have really made me feel much better as I wasn't aware of my options.

I agree with you that getting the tenants out is the primary concern. I'd like to get them out and have nothing more to do with the LA. The sooner this can be achieved the better.

Its remains very annoying to think I've been paying the LA and he hasn't done anything to earn it, however. He actually is very much to blame for the tenants as he recommended them. He told me that they had been his tenants for about a year and were good tenants. Whether this constituted the extent of his reference checks I don't know. I guess I should have asked to see them at the time but it was all very rushed. The tenants needed to move in immediately and in fact, he only contacted me once the contracts had already been signed.

You have pointed out a few holes in the info I provided so I'll try to fill them in and also add what has happened since....

First the positives - you are not complaining about the fact that the rent isn't being paid .... so we must assume that the rent account is fully up-to-date - which is unusual in the type of scenario that you paint!Not quite so positive really. The rent has been paid 3 times more than 10 days late in the first 5 months, but crucially, it had been getting paid. The final Jan 19th payment is still outstanding however. I was told on Saturday I will receive a call by Monday from the LA's office regarding this.

When I did not hear, I called them. The girl was surprised I had been referred to her as she was in a different office.

She then asked me whether the tenants had paid...

I could not believe that the neither the letting agent nor his accounts dept. had any idea whether the tenants had paid the previous month's rent.

I was only after I had double checked the last 6 months bank statements last week that the non payment became apparent to me. The Dec payment was so late, I had mistakenly thought it was the Jan payment!I asked her investigate and to get back to me. She promised to email her findings to me by tomorrow. I also asked her for the Tenancy Deposit Protection Certificate and a copy of the Section 21 notice which she also promised to send to me.

12 adults and 4 children in a single, 3 bedroom, house is definitely overcrowded but you do not state how many tenants you were expecting at the property or how many tenants are listed on the tenancy agreement?

The agreement has only 1 name on it - Rafael. I was told that the tenants would number 5 - Rafael, his wife, their child and Rafael's parents.Rafael himself admitted there were 12 people living in the house last week but I counted more. I have seen yet more people entering the property with a key.

If a valid Section 21 has been served then you should ask for a copy of it. If it has, indeed, expired then you should start Court proceedings against the tenant ASAP - irrespective of what the LA says or promises.

Ignore the weakness and start repossession procedures yourself. You will also need a copy of the Tenancy Deposit Protection Certificate - demand this from the LA as well.

I'll have to wait at least until tomorrow before I find out if a valid notice was served. Depends on whether the LA's office get back to me.

The LA today told me that the tenants had been to his office to collect the keys for the property he is moving them to. He said he was with a client and would call me back. He did not so I called him.

He told me that although they had taken the keys for the new property, they had not yet moved out of mine. They needed a couple more days to put the house back to how they found it. Don't know if this can be trusted going by his previous form.

He was confident that the rent would be paid and would include payment for the extra days (10 so far).

Where do I stand if he cannot produce the notice or if its not been properly served or if he hasn't handled the deposit correctly?

I am fairly sure the deposit is not going to cover the repairs and cleaning bill. Can I recover further costs from the tenants or LA?

Should I ignore the LA when he says they will be out in the next few days? I think they may actually be moving out. Not sure if I should wait a few more days before taking further steps now.

The quickest way to achieve possession is to get them moved by either your LA or Environmental Health. 12 adults and 4 children in a single property is a health risk and I would be informing EH about this situation. If you wait for the Courts then it will take a minimum of 28 days to get a possession order and,if they do not leave peacefully then, a further 6 weeks to get a Court Bailiff.

Are you saying that the EH can sort this out quicker than I can with the courts? And without any cost to me?

Conditions in the house are pretty bad. With so many people, all their stuff and the heating being on full all the time, he house so humid that the wallpaper has peeled off the walls. I could barely breathe when I inspected it. I felt sorry for the young children and the cats having to live in that hot, sticky and smoke filled atmosphere. Wish I'd known about the EH route months ago.

many thanks for your advice.

-jason

[F1rst Move]

Hi Ja99son,

I think that the trenners has covered all the points that I would have made. Over the 10 years that I have been buying and letting property we have had some shocking experiences with LA. Its easy to brand all LA with the same brush however in my experience there are some excellent agents out there.

If you need help to advertise your property once you have it back from the LA. I have a company that specialise in advertising lettings properties that will be self managed and will be able to pull you a good package together at very little cost.

Good luck with the recovery of the property. I know how it feels

James