UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,i need an urgen answer please,falks!
I found prospective tenants thrugh Connells,they stuff them around so much,the people got upset and pulled out b4 we could sign the contracts,ter they had payed them £540 refference checking fee,and  they approached me to go private!
Im happy to do that,Connells suspect they did that,and sent me a letter saying im liable for fees if i go private with those tenats!
Can anyone tell me what they can legaly charge me for essentially introducing them?I signed my part of the contract b4 they pulled out,but they havent signed anything!What am i up for if i goahed?
thanks a lot guys!
europagem!

They have just notified me they want 10% of the rent for the 6months term+VAT,and a £395 fee for reference checking,tenancy,agreement ,itinerary and rent deposit scheem,neither of which i have used yet!
Does anyone know what they are REALLY entitled to?
If i take the tenants,i dont mind paying them something,but this is ridiculous!!!!

You did, in fact, get the introduction through Connells, so I think you will probably find you owe them some sort of fee.  The introduction was made after all.

I think you are probably onto a sticky wicket by taking the tenant that Connells introduced, but then trying to circumvent them and go private.  Not that I especially like estate agents or their exorbitant fees because I don't, but they will argue (with some possible justification as far as I can see) that you used their services, and so must pay something.

Possibly the best compromise might be to go for the introduction only service rather than full management.  This should be somewhat the cheaper of the two, leaving you to manage the tenant and the property yourself thereafter up until renewal.

Hello europagem1,

I'm going to be slightly bolder on thsi issue than Topseyt.  If Connells really did fail to add any value and, even worse, made the renting of the property less likely through their incompetance, then the law will deem that the imposition of a fee for incompetance is unjustified.  I.e. the value of the introduction is outweighed by subsequent uselessness.

However, the question I think you need to focus on is how much evidence of this you have.  My experience of agents is there's a lot of conversations and not much in writing.  And too many people do try to pull a fast one on agents so you need to be able to prove you're being honest.

If you've got the evidence, thell them to go away.  Hope this helps.