UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi everyone, I've been a BTL landlord for just over two years and have used the same agent for all that time to manage the property. I paid an upfront fee for the agent to find suitable tenants and do the checks and documentation etc. Thereafter, I pay a monthly fee for them to manage the property and collect the rent etc. Needless to say, the agent has been next to useless since day one and my patience is finally exhausted with them (god knows why it took me so long to wake up but that's another story). To complete the picture, I originally signed a contract with the agent for their services but that was 26 months ago. I still have the original tenants that the agent introduced at the beginning and I am stuck with them for the time being having just signed another 12-month Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement. I now want to dismiss the agent and manage the property myself but having read the original contract for the first time in just over 2 years, I am left with a few queries, as follows:-

1)  The contract states that I must give 3-months notice in writing (and 3-months more in management fees, of course). The contract has no given validity period and just appears to roll on, but am I right in thinking that a contract should only last for 12-months and then be renewed? Can the agent impose this 3-month notice period after such a long time?

2)  Furthermore, the contract states that if the agent's services are terminated and I continue to keep tenants introduced by them, then a further fee is payable to the tune of 50% of one month's rent. Again, can the agent do this? Especially as I have already paid a fee for them to find a tenant!

3)  The tenant's Deposit monies are held by the agent in a client account and protected by an insurance based Deposit Protection Scheme. When the agent is dismissed I will need to transfer the Deposit monies into my own preferred Deposit Protection Scheme. Do I have the right to claim the Deposit monies direct from the agent? If the agent pays the Deposit back to the tenant, then I have no leverage to get the money back as the tenant has the security of a shinny new Assured Shorthold Tenancy.

I realise this is all a bit long winded, but if anyone can shed any light on the situation I would be much obliged.

Thanks
Skipper-P

For 1) and 2) these appear to be the Terms of Business you signed up to. Although they may feel unfair and somewhat punitive, it's the Agent's way of protecting their interests. Many Landlords fall foul of such terms because we are all optimists and we think nothing will go wrong... or the Agent won't be lazy or incompetent. You will have to gauge how far you can push the Agent into not pushing for this. I mean, one of the first ports of calls will be to the Agent and inform them of your intention to terminate their services, at which point you can expect their protestations to come out in force. But - you never know - if you have not done that yet, and you do it now, then maybe they'll not be as on-the-ball or as mercenary - if they reckon they've had their pound of flesh. As to whether they can do this... you'd suppose so, after all - one presumes you weren't coerced into signing up to it?

For 3) a nice clean transfer from Agent to Tenant, Tenant to you, then you protect would be preferable. Surely you are thinking the worst when you seem to be implying the Tenant is just going to say to the Agent "thanks for the money" and to you "well, I'm not giving you this money I've just received for you to protect" but would rather pocket it and ruin the relationship they have with their Landlord? Isn't that a little paranoid or do you have reason to think that's how it would go down? That said, there was a Transfer Deposit option on the DPS (not sure about others) website... it could be just for Custodial, but maybe not, and I cannot provide you with a link because - believe it or not - their website is currently down for maintenance.

However, the first thing you must do is get yourself registered and get yourself an ID you can use if you want to investigate transfer or just creating a new Deposit.

Hi Hippogriff,
Thanks so much for your prompt reply. You have pretty much confirmed my own thoughts but it is good to get someone else's opinion.
I thought I would end up having to pay the piper and will have to chalk it up to experience. Next time will do due diligence.
Anyway, I haven't yet given up hope of arguing the fees down to a minimum.
Once again, thanks for your input.
Skipper_P