UK Landlord Forum / Life

Guys,

Just stumbled on this site, very impressed with great info, etc. I'm a landlord and am due to attend small claims court shortly. I instructed an agent to find me a tenant and agreed an upfront management fee for 6 months. The tenants were fine, property impeccably looked after, no problems. However on day the 6 month AST expired tenant walked into office, gave back keys and said they wanted deposit back.

Agent contacted me, said deposit is protected and tenants can't just walk in and demand deposit back, must give one months notice. In that case I told them to withold the deposit. Tenants disputed this and the matter was referred to Tenancy Deposit Scheme people who found in tenants favour. Agents got on phone to me saying it's really bad, and lots of time tenants win these cases, and it's really sad etc. But I was not one bit happy. Did a bit of digging about and this is what I found out.......

I signed an Agency Agreement, also signed by Letting Agent, stating they would contact tenant before AST expired to establish their intentions (meaning they could then start remarketing property if necessary, avoiding any loss of rent. - LETTING AGENTS DID NOT DO THIS.

Referred paperwork to solicitor who explained to me the difference between fixed term and periodic term - AGENTS WERE UNAWARE OF THIS

Agents said tenants had to give one months notice in writing - not the case as this was not mentioned in the contract - AGENTS UNAWARE OF THIS

My property lay vacant for 6 weeks. I paid the Agents £500 up front fee for property management. I demanded they make good my loss of rent (just 1 month, as they led me to believe I would win the dispute and was entitled to the rent deposit). I think the agents should give me my £500 back as they did not do as set out in Agency Agreement. Also as direct consequence of their actions (or lack of actions) I lost £1000 rent (6 weeks).

Initially, when I expressed my disappointment with the way they handled the dispute I put in writing my claim for 1 month rent (make good my loss of deposit) they refused point blank
After applying pressure they said they would find my next tenant for free ( why would I be happy to go back to them?) then offered me £300 as a goodwill gesture because they value the relationship (!)

In my opinion this is unacceptable. I used MONEY CLAIM ONLINE and Agents made same offer of £300, turned down. No heading to small claims court, never went to mediation even though I agreed to try it.

I'm convinced I have been screwed and £300 is derisory but as day gets closer I get more and more nervous. What do you guys think of my arguments?

Really sorry to hear about this.  It is a disgrace that the agency did not do their job properly and even worse that they were not aware of the tenant's rights.  I think you are right to push it as you are, your arguments are good but would need to see the full contract between you and the agent etc to give further support!  Good luck and keep me posted. If i am too late then i hope you have been successful! I can look into this a bit for you but will hold back in case i am too late.

Hi mva21, many thanks for your reply. The agency agreement states - liaising with the tenant on a routine basis, arranging renewals of the agreement or checkouts, re-advertising and reletting to new tenants as appropriate..
I'm not a expert in this field but think this clearly states managing agent will contact the tenants before contract expires to find out if they are staying - if tenants are leaving they can then arrange for new tenants, if the tenants are staying they arrange renewal of agreement. This did not happen, if it had I would have had a calender month to get new tenants, thus helping to avoid any loss of rent.
This makes me think letting agent were negligent. If I go to McDonalds and my burger is rubbish I get my money back. Why should I pay £500 for a service that I clearly did not get, they may have visited property once, but that's all. I feel they should give this money back and make good my loss of rent as they clearly caused it. Will they also have to pay my court fees? What about loss of earnings for my day in court? Is £300 a fair offer and should I just have accepted it? When they offered £300, their letter stated ' I do acknowledge that we should have ascertained the tenants intentions in August 2009' is this an admission of guilt? Whilst all this was going on I used same letting agents to find me a tenant, I am managing this tenancy myself. However letting agent prepared the AST - It does not mention the Deposit Protection Scheme, I thought under current law all AST's should include this?

This contract seems vague.  I agree with you in that you have not been dealt with fairly BUT the wording below is not specific enough for your requirements.  Also, i do not believe that the non-performance of a clause is necessarily negligence; it can be but this clause is not specific enough to make it a 'slam dunk'. 

Their lack of awareness on the deposit scheme is an issue and i would suggest this is where the real line of attack is but not sure what hard evidence you have to back your case.  It is clear that something has gone badly wrong and that they have not done their job, not too able to help with your case without the full details.  When is the hearing?  Feel free to message me directly with info etc if you would like it discussed off board. 

Finally the deposit info disclosure is a legal requirement and as such the details are included in the AST in the majority of cases.  There is a legal requirement to provide the disclosure info in a form (the number of the form i cannot recall) but it is basically the prescribed info form which may have not been part of the AST.  If the AST actually implies that a non-approved scheme is being used (or implies no scheme at all) it helps your case.

Keep me posted but am busy so not on this forum as much as i'd like!