Missie Posted February 23, 2012 Report Share Posted February 23, 2012 Hi, I am new here and actually stumbled across this site whilst looking for information about an unpleasant situation with the letting agency that we have been with for three years. They have arranged for a new tenant to move into the property very soon and I had sent an email to them last week to advise of issues and situations with the property (the agent said he only wanted to deal via email) and they have not responded to our questions at all and said they will do this 'shortly' but in the same email they advised that they are terminating our Fully Managed Service Contract, and then advised that they are still prepared to deal on our behalf only on a Tenant find basis or tenant and rent collection. The termination of the contract will mean that this tenant will only be one month into a 6 month contract and he had sourced and taken the deposit form the tenant prior to advising that the contract was being terminated. The agent has not supplied any information on the tenant that has been sourced even though I have asked for this twice now and I am concerned that they will still move this tenant into our property without us actually instructing that we do not want to proceed. I have sent an email to them yesterday asking for the information again as without this I am unable to instruct them further but not had any reply from them. There have been other issues with the agents in the last 6 months and especially one situation actually breaches the contract that we agreed with them 3 years ago. Does anyone have any advice as I am needing a little wealth of someone's experience with this one. Oh sorry forgot to say that I live hundreds of miles away form the property and managing it myself is not an option. Thanks in advance, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LLAW96 Posted February 23, 2012 Report Share Posted February 23, 2012 Firstly remember you are the principal and they act on your instructions, if you are not happy with something say so, it is your property. If they are reputable they will be a member of a professional body such as ARLA etc, this may provide you with a remedy. Aside from this you need to look at the agreement you signed with the agent as this will be the basis of the contract you have with them. If this provides you with no redress then find another agent who will respond to your instructions and act in your interests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missie Posted February 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2012 Thanks for the response Law....the reason that they have terminated the contract is that I have contacted them advising that I am not happy with certain aspects of the handling of our property. So I kinda hit a brick wall with them. They are members of NAEA and I have just been reading up about the complaints procedure. This is definitely something that I am going to carry out as there are a number off issues outstanding that they are failing to respond to me on. Further from that I have already earmarked potential new letting agents to handle the property, I just hope the property is not in too much of a state of disrepair when I get to it. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grampa Posted February 24, 2012 Report Share Posted February 24, 2012 If you are not happy with the tenant make sure the agent is informed (IN WRITING) you do not want them to grant a tenancy until you see XYZ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richlist Posted February 24, 2012 Report Share Posted February 24, 2012 These agents give me no confidence that they will do what is asked.......whatever means of communication is used. I wouldn't give them the opportunity of saying they didn't receive the instruction and risk having unsatisfactory tenants in the property. In this case I'd certainly suggest you get the locks changed NOW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carryon Regardless Posted February 26, 2012 Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 RL if I understand this correctly the T's are 1 month in and have a further 5 months of fixed term remaining. This being the case Missy has no right to prevent their access. Perhaps you could confirm tenancy status Missy. The A sounds iffy but they are in business, if they no longer wish to do business with you as you desire they have that choice. It sounds like there is a breakdown in your relationship. If you aren't able to rebuild the relationship your choice is to find another A, let's face it trying to get them to do as you wish after an official complaint means you've a hard time ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richlist Posted February 26, 2012 Report Share Posted February 26, 2012 RL if I understand this correctly the T's are 1 month in and have a further 5 months of fixed term remaining. This being the case Missy has no right to prevent their access. Absolutely correct Cor......my mistake, I didn't read the post carefully enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missie Posted February 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2012 Hi Everyone thanks for your responses. The situation is that the agents had provisionally arranged for tenants to move into the property on 6month term. However a week after they arranged for this to happen they then serve notice of termination for the Managed Service Contract. My issue was that by servigin notice ant then allowing for these tenants to move into the property on the date that the Managed Service contract will actually expire is 1month into the 6months fixed term let. They then wanted me to instruct them if I would be happy for the tenants to still move in on a Tenant Find only basis, but after three attempt of trying to get information from them about the tenants I have advised them that I cannot give them any authority to move them in on that basis. When posting I was just a bit unsure with my legal standing with them provisionally arranging to move the tenants in and the Managed Service Contract still lasting until the end of of the 1st month of the new tenants occupation. I was thinking that perhaps there may be a loophole that would allow them still to move the tenants in after I instructed them torent out the property for us - although this was agreed under a Managed Service contract. *Update - i have emailed the agents at the end of last week (as the agents still failed to respond to me with any information at all - not even to acknowledge that they got my emails requesting information from them) I have advised that their failure to give me any information at all about the 'new' tenants is preventing us from agreeing to have them move into our property and we do not permit them to move them in. Onto the next hurdle now with them....I have a huge list that needs addressing, I think it is going to be a very long Month ahead If it is ok with you guys I might post back here for guidance on things that I am a complete novice with! Thanks for all your repsonses though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carryon Regardless Posted February 27, 2012 Report Share Posted February 27, 2012 If an AST already exists for the new tenancy you are bound by it. Or to be more precise if the tenancy was entered into before your instruction to the A not to create such an agreement. If you have no knowledge of an agreement I would do as RL and take full control of 'your' property, change the locks. Write to the A, recorded delivery, informing them of your actions and that their services are totally dispensed with. I see no advantage in trying to force a business relationship here. New A, new T's, worry about the history later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missie Posted February 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2012 Nio there is no acknowledgement of and agreement beign in place, the A's had just advised that they had a tenant provisionally in place to let the property, I at that point had never agreed for anything to be drawn up in way of an agreement as all I was wanting them to do was to give me information about the sort of tenants that they had found and provisionally agreed to move into the property. Numerous attempts ofr me to obtain the information from the A's as to a background on the T's were ignored. This is the reason that I put down for not agreeing to allow them to move into the property. I love the idea about the changing of the locks. However, I am literally hundreds of miles away from the property and unable to instruct anyone to do this on my behalf and to give them access to the property to get this done immediately. I will have to go to the property myself and get these changed over. Oh the A's are definitely gone, I have no desire to try and rebuild any kind of Business relationship with them as they have proven to me that they are just not that interested. I have already provisionally set up for another more reputable A to take over looking after my interests. Now its just a question of timing, arranging to go to the property....and probably spending lots of money on the property to get it looking like someone really cares about it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carryon Regardless Posted February 27, 2012 Report Share Posted February 27, 2012 When I use an A I write to confirm that my signature would be required for an AST to be valid. In other words if an A enters into an AST it is an agreement they have responsibility for, not me. Once in a property getting such a T out would be a real bitch anyway. I would prefer to travel, change locks, then any access by others would be forced entry. A's have been known to act without owner consents, as they are 'instructed' by the owner you can guess who ends up with the problem. The written word can leave the A open to a claim but the prevention is by far preferable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missie Posted February 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2012 Thanks for the info Cor, certainly the signature for the AST sounds like a really good option to me. The tenants were supposed to have moved in today, and we have not heard anything else to the contrary from the A since advising that we do not permit them to proceed with moving the tenants in, but in realistic terms I don't reckon they would tell us if they had just moved them in anyway. My only saving grace is that they asked me how I would like to proceed with the tenants when they notified us of the termination to the managed service - my response was give me the information on the tenants which as I mentioned previously they failed to do. We definitely have to travel to look over what is going on with the property...but timing ain't great as we are both up to our eyes with work at the moment and free time is not really spare for us....but its a top priority so we will just have to make it happen! somehow!!! thanks for your thoughts on this, its much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missie Posted March 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 Hi everyone, just thought I would let you know that the A's did not move the tenants in after all, I think they probably arranged another property for them however, thanks to everyone who responded to me, nice to have the value of other peoples experience. I now find myself in a different situation with the A's but I will check the boards first to see if there is any advice on there and if not I will post a new thread. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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