UK Landlord Forum / Life

An un-named Letting Agent has closed shop taking thousand of pounds from Landlords and Tenants. They also operated under different names. And are trying to go into bankruptcy again. The Agent in question Fraudulently advertised properties on-line and took deposits from tenants ranging from £300 to £3000 on bogus properties. The deposits were never refunded to the tenants.

The Letting Agent stole thousands in rent money taking only cash payments and not paying vat. Some landlords/tenants took them to the County Courts but never received their claim. It is useless for us to take on a private prosecution as we don't know where the defendants dissapeared to, and very costly legally. The claimants already forked out on eviction costs.

Despite this going to Trading Standards who have not taken any action against the Letting Agent to prosecute them, except to fine them and this was never paid. Whereas some Boroughs have successfully prosecuted rogue agents. The poor victims have been told that this is a civil matter and not a criminal matter.

They managed Landlords properties failing to pass on the rents and deposit protection which was never registered. The AST's were not passed on to the landlords and when finally received showed that the Agent signed as the Landlord (and said they owned the properties). The AST's were only initialed with no full name signatures. The promised tenants never moved, but un-vetted tenants were moved in (sometimes with multiple AST's) who illegally sub-letted the properties as HMO's. Leaving the landlords to evict the bad tenants.

Please advise us if this is really a "criminal case" and where to go higher up to be listened to and action to be taken.

Hi sorry to here this but this is clearly a criminal matter against the letting agent, however it will be a civil matter to recover the money owed. It annoys me that landlords get ripped off by not only tenants but agents as well and left to clear up the mess and out of pocket. This is why I specialise in this industry and help landlords recover there losses. I not advertising my services just stating I have done this as employment now have set my own business.. do you know any other landlords involved? What area of the uk is this taken place? What happened when trading standards got involved? Didn't the police take note?

Hi thank you for replying and making it clearer on criminal and civil matter. This took place in the East London area. I'm persuming that the letting agent has either spent or hidden the proceeds of crime (rumour is that they brought buy to let properties). And looking at reviews on another letting agent it sounds too familiar. Yes, I know other landlords and tenants involved, some have not come forward as scared for the risk of prosecution, as their properties were turned in to HMO's. Trading Standards only got superficially involved. They have not prosecuted the letting agent informing us it is a civil matter. Nor answered some of the claimants or not sent us an official letter to say that there is nothing that they can do. Its all verbal and telling us "if there are any monies available we are at the bottom of the list!" They are most probably hoping we will get fed up and go away. A group of the victims visited the police station only to be sent away without taking a report and informed again that this is a civil matter.

Firstly, I believe that the victims would like to see the Agent prosecuted and it would be a bonus if they could recover some of their losses.

I note that you mentioned help landlords recover their losses, please can you give me more info?

Hi due to the site rules I can advertise on here. I have been involved with this industry as a hobby helping landlords get what's theirs, I got that busy I now made it my full time job. I legally qualified and specialise in the landlord market if you want me to do a search on the letting agent again FREE as your a member of this group please send me a message from this site including a email and I'll send you the report. Also the police won't do anything as it is a civil matter how ever I would be happy to assist you and other landlords in order to bring a criminal case against this agent .