UK Landlord Forum / Life

I've been reading through other posts and the more I read the more I realise I know nothing and the more confused I am getting

I have asked the agent several times for copies of references.  First of all they said I should have had these, now because I requested them as I haven't had anything, they tell me they don't usually let landlords have references as they contain 'sensitive' information.  Am I entitled to have copies of references if the property is fully managed by an agent? This agent is telling me they manage it I don't get the references.  Don't quite understand.

Deposits I thought were put in a secure scheme.  If a tenant does some damage, which my anti social  one did, then I understood that he doesn't get his deposit back or may get just some of it back. to cover the damage.  If that deposit is in a secure scheme or whatever it's supposed to be, how come I have to wait  3 months for him to raise a dispute when I won't automatically authorise the release of funds?  Why in this dispute do I get told the deposit has to be lodged with this My Deposit lot ?  I thought that was what I was paying £4 a month for.  Can anybody explain this, I'm a new very reluctant landlord and I'm having great difficulty understanding some of this.  It should be logical and straightforward but I get the impression I have an agent who is doing its best to rip me off by confusion and hopes I won't notice.

Thanks for any info

Back in the days when I ran my own lettings agency, I would have provided copy references to a landlord if they asked for them.  In your case, the use of the phrase "sensitive information" makes me think their refusal might actually be about the GDPR.  This is a new law that came into effect on 25th May last year.  Interesting.

If they're right to refuse and the GDPR actually applies between agent and principal, then that's yet another good reason not to use a lettings agent in the 21st century.  Landlords have a legitimate need for this information when deciding whether a tenant should move in.

Back in the day, I used to hold the deposit as agent for the landlord, so I would hold it to the landlord's order and release it when they told me to.  Unfortunately some of the lettings agents used to have regular cleaners they used for every property after the tenant moved out.  The cleaning firm would provide a certificate to say they'd cleaned the house and a receipt; and the tenant would get the certificate, the receipt and the balance of their deposit if any.

And of course there was sometimes a secret deal between agent and cleaning where the cleaning firm would pay the agency a 10% commission on their fees.  Agencies also get offered commissions to use a particular gas engineer for all their gas safety checks, a particular EPC provider for all their EPCs, and so on.  I used to refuse these approaches because it amounted to a conflict of interest, but they were all too common elsewhere in the industry.

Also, some landlords used to get utterly needless work done between tenancies at the tenant's expense.  In short, abuse of the system was rife.

Tenants quite rightly complained that this was unfair and the Government passed the Housing Act 2004.  This says that the tenant's deposit has to be kept by an approved body.  MyDeposits are one of the three approved bodies to hold this money.  They resolve any disputes between tenant and landlord before returning the cash to either party.  And of course they need paying for this service, and landlords get to pay the bill.

1) Should a Landlord get the outcome of referencing? Yes, it's part of your decision-making process and even if you are employing an Agent for "full management" you are the final decision-maker as to what Tenants you take on etc. - the Agent should offer you advice and guidance, provides recommendations and assistance... carry out tasks on your behalf. Whatever your Agent is doing now seems more like they think they own your property and you're just a silent partner or something, stumping up the finances. Likewise, similar to an Agent's advice and guidance and recommendations - the referencing also comes with a recommendation, one you need to see. Simply demand to see it right now.

2) You're paying someone £4 per month for the protection of the Deposit? Wow. Agents have interesting approaches to things... imagine that scaled-up, with no scale-up of work.

Many many thanks for the responses, it gives me more ammunition to tell this agent where to go when I've worked out how to do that without them spouting all sorts of rules and regs at me. 

When they 'found' the current tenant, without following my instructions on rental price for example, I tried to use the 14 day cooling off period for cancellation but they wouldn't allow me to do that, they said I had already accepted the terms and conditions.  The fact I hadn't signed anything lest of all the tenancy agreement or their terms of business seemed to mean nothing at all but being a newbie and not having a clue I had to let it stay.

I have questioned lots of things they have done, I am still questioning and they are still refusing to give references or any other information I've asked for.  Nest step I think may be to make a formal complaint but the next question is who to complain to?  No point complaining to them, they're not going to admit they made a dogs breakfast of everything so now to investigate further.  There are some real sharks out there, I didn't realise just how bad some of these agents could be especially the bigger ones.

I really do appreciate all the help given so far.  It's good to know there are nice people out there in the property business. Thank you

You can complain to the redress scheme which they are a member of (they are required to be a member of one). But you would be required to make a complaint to the agent first and only if that gets nowhere could you then go to the redress scheme.

Thank you KTC.  At the moment I am asking questions via email as I don't trust this agent to do anything that's agreed verbally.  They've already proved they can't honour instructions so now I'm gathering all their replies, I will make a formal complaint when I get the answers to the latest round of queries and when they've sent their replies in emails I will then escalate the complaint.  I don't think I can ever remember having to deal with such an incompetent company.  I'm sure all letting agents aren't the same, but it just looks like I picked the wrong one which is part of a much larger property company.