UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,

I have a situation where my current tenant is gooing to soon be (as of 11th August 2014) 4 months in rent arrears. I am currently going through the Section 8 court repossession, blah b;ah blah. My solicitor is dealing with that side of it. However, it has come to light that the references provided by the tenant back in February are fraudulent/falsified.

My solicitor suggested I contact the referees personally as the work done by the estate agent was atrocious, to put it lightly. I have found out recently that the tenant has had 12 addresses in the last 3 years, the references were emailed and none of them signed. To say a 3 year old could do a better job would be an understatement. I have tried to contact her employer, which funnily enough she intercepted... and I have tried to contact her previous landlord, who conveniently lives in Austraslia. When I rang the number a man answered who had never heard of the referee. I didn't say who I was or the nature of my call, just "Can I speak to, ..... please". I did my best dumb blonde act and found out the man had had the number for 4 years .

In the meantime, my nightmare tenant has said she want £3000 from me to end the tenancy early. Extortion?

So, my thoughts are:

1. Are the all in it together, and hope to get £100 each?
2. Or has she set up numerous email accounts? xxx@hotmail.co.uk and xxx@gmail.com?

The reason for my post is I desperately need some advice on how to get the estate agent to pay some compensation for the negligent work they have done? The 12 month tenancy is worth £6900. She paid the first 2 months rent and now it is costing me a small fortune, and there isn't an end in sight for the court case!! 

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
And thank you in advance.

I do not hold out much hope of you being successful with the Letting Agent, unless you took it (that aspect) to Court and they found in your favour. I'd not want to put you off, though, you should use anything and everything at your disposal... I just note you have already engaged a Solicitor and wonder if they are giving you advice (or can) on this too?

If the Letting Agent purports to be a member of a professional body, ARLA, TPO or NAEA or what-have-you, then you could make a complaint via that route? If not, though, then what can be done? Please remember that it takes no training, no qualifications and no specialist skills what-so-ever to set yourself up in business as a Letting Agent (or an Estate Agent) and this is why the industry is full of cowboys and has such a bad reputation.

Best of luck.