UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello. My agent tells me that I am not allowed to contact my tenant directly. is this true?

Only if the agent has something to hide.  Your property, your investment, your tenant and your person working under your authority (the agent)  The tenant should know who you are via their AST.  What do you want to contact them about?

Quote from: Paul on April 02, 2015, 08:40:18 PMHello. My agent tells me that I am not allowed to contact my tenant directly. is this true?

That's beautiful. Would you take some pleasure in reminding your Agent who employs them? The tail does not wag the dog. This Agent either has ideas above their station or a fundamental misunderstanding of how this relationship is set up. Both are entirely possible, of course. Consider firing the Agent... that will remind them who is in charge.

Hello
Thanks for replying
The situation arose yesterday when I wanted to book a valuation for a potential remortgage. I tried to contact the tenant directly as I thought it would be more convenient. However the agent got involved telling me that a new law came in on April 1st to stop landlords with agents contacting tenants directly. They found the tenant for me 2 years ago now and are behaving as though they own her in some way. They are also saying that if I want to manage the place myself and get rid of their service I have to pay them a fee equivalent to around 6 months fees (around £600).

Please ask them to refer you to this law. Then tell us.

Then fire them. This kind of termination clause shows you exactly what type of Agent you're dealing with here. Not a good one. Take great pleasure in firing them. Then ignore their attempts to extort money from you. Defend in Court if you ever need to; would that ever happen, depends on how stupid they are, I guess. Next time you're signing something, read it thoroughly.

I wonder if they received an email on April the 1st with lots of weird and wacky things on?

Ask them to confirm what they say in an email to you.

ha ha my instinct was it's an april fool but also to say yes the place is mine and you're working for me. It amazes me that they can just lie to your face like this. There seems to be very little regulation over agents

You regulate them by getting rid of them.

Cheeky agent

"Please dont contact your tenant, as you might decide to take them on directly, and we would loose getting money for nothing"

Passed the Royal Accent just last week.

LIARS

HATE BLOODY LIARS/AGENTS

Exactly. So the tenants deposit. The agent put it into a scheme. Can I just leave this where it is, get rid of the agent, give the tenant a new contract and take over management myself then?

Quote from: Paul on April 07, 2015, 07:24:51 PM
Exactly. So the tenants deposit. The agent put it into a scheme. Can I just leave this where it is, get rid of the agent, give the tenant a new contract and take over management myself then?

You'd need to sort out the deposit 'owner' with the scheme as you don't want the agent still being this.  Don't know how, never used an agent or bothered protecting deposits.

Yeah right, you never bothered protecting deposits!

Lol!