UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello

I am a landlady and the letting agency I used to find me a tenant two years ago is turning into a nightmare.

Back in December, I naively wrote to these agents informing them my tenant and I wished to have our own private agreement from February onwards (when the current fixed term contract runs out) as my tenant wanted to rent my property for a third year running and after all this time, we got on pretty well. This seemed to enrage the letting agents and they wrote back saying that if my tenant stayed on, then regardless of whether I signed a new contract with them, I was liable to pay them a substantial fee as per our contract.

I then checked the contract, and it's true that there is a clause outlining this which I hadn't read properly before but nor had they drawn my attention to it either. It really annoyed me. Last year, they kind of bullied me into signing a new contract with them so I've been looking forward to severing all contact with them. Reading that clause in our contract made me feel as if I was being effectively blackmailed into not only paying them huge amounts of money which they didn't deserve but using the services of a company that's lost my goodwill. 

However, after finding The Landlord's fantastic blog on how to avoid tenancy renewal fees, my tenant and I decided that we would let our contract roll onto a periodic tenancy. I was about to write to my agents about this and was anticipating a huge row about it, when I discovered something further.

I rang the govt-approved company that the agents have listed in the contract as the company they have used to register my tenant's deposit and guess what, it's not registered!! The woman who took my call advised me to get legal advice but I am still in shock and don't know how to proceed on both matters.

In the meanwhile, the agents keep emailing me for a response as the current contract is due to run out in early February.

Any advice would be very appreciated! I've been appallingly naive so far.

first check with your tenant that they have sent the deposit protection details to him/her. he should have been given them at the beginning of the tenancy? they may have changed the deposit protection company they use?

if not then dont jump straight into getting legal advice as its expensive. see if some one on this or other forums can help.

really iwould call their bluff by saying that you tenant is thinking of leaving and could he have the deposit protection details!

if they arent forthcoming then you know that they have kept the deposit elsewhere in which case you have them by the short and curlies. check if they are a member of arla (should be on their headed paper). this is efectively their regulator.

if they are and the deposit has gone astray then write to them terminating the contract and stating that you look forward to receipt of the deposit protection details so they can be put in your name!! they might just panic and send you the deposit in form of cheque in which case you can then register it yourself and your'e home and dry.

if they dont play ball write again saying that as you have not had the deposit protection details you will be contacting ARLA and trading standards and citizens advice about their conduct. are they national or local letting agent? 

also at the same time get your tenant to write to them requesting details of the Deposit Protection scheme that they have his money with. this may also rattle their cage and they may again pay up quick. 
good luck
 

Hello - thank you for your top advice.

Since posting earlier today, I have located a sheet of paper with the original deposit protection details.

It refers to the deposit being lodged two years ago with DPS, a company that is different to the one in my current contract - so what you say is possible.

I have now called both companies trying to discover whether the deposit is lodged there but they could find no record of it with my name and postcode of rental property. Maybe it has been lodged in the agents name but under data protection, they can't tell me.

Because I want to inform the agents ASAP that I will be allowing the contract to elapse into a periodic tenancy agreement between my tenant and I - so as to avoid paying their renewal fees - it would be confusing to claim my tenant is leaving. Besides my tenant has told me he doesn't want to lie to anyone.

Instead, when I email them about the situation with my tenant, could I ask them at the same time to transfer the deposit protection details into my name? I have now set up an account in my name at DPS.

Or would it be best for my tenant to request his deposit protection details himself?

By the way, there is no mention of ARLA on their headed paper. They are a local letting agent. Mistakes that I won't make again!

One more question about renewal fees again - even if I begin a periodic tenancy agreement with my tenant next month, can my agents still claim that I must pay them renewal fees? The wording of their contract seems to suggest that if the tenant stays on for any time whatsoever, I must pay them a fee. And the  fee rises if it is less than 3 months!



 

Hello TeeDee,

As you and your tenant are getting on well.  Can I suggest you ask your tenant to ring up the DPS to see where the deposit is.  If the agent registered the deposit, your contact details might not be lodged with DPS and Data Protection Act law stipulates DPS talk only to the Tenant or Agent.  Everyone else gets fobbed off.

The law considers you and your agent to be at legal parity.  I.e they are a businessman and you are a businessman.  So you are free to contract.  There are less stipulations than where you're a consumer.  So it's likely the terms could stand, it depends exactly what they say.

However, if your tenant moves onto statutory periodic then they are staying and a renewal fee is due.  If they stay for more than three months then a highe fee can not be charged.  And it will take three months to see if that fee becomes payable.

You don't say why you lost faith with your agent.  My suggestion is that in the long term you keep a written note to them of all disapointments they meet out to you.  When the list is long enough point out that because of all their problems you are terminating the agreement.  The law is not sympathetic to agents who charge a fee, provide bad service, and hide behind their contract terms to continue to extract money.

Hope this helps.